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t0 i^rl|00ls 0f S^Hmhwcvi Siuratton 



§)ecpnD Kepart of Committee 
of a00onateD J^artiarD Clufis 



at Chicago, Q^ag, 1906 




Gift 
Author 



Report of the Committee of the Associated Harvard 

Clubs for the year 1905-1906, on the Relation 

of Harvard University to Schools for 

Secondary Education^ 



To the Members of the Associated Harvard Clubs, 

Me. Geoege D. Maekham, '81, President. 

Gentlemen : 

At the last session a resolution was adopted continuing 
the present Committee in service, and authorizing them 
to conduct further inquiries upon the subject indicated 
above. 

Pursuant to that direction your Committee have corre- 
sponded with schools for secondary education by means 
of the circular letter, a copy of which is attached 
hereto as Appendix I, and the responses of the schools 
thereto. This circular was sent out to 200 schools, and 
responses were made by over 40 schools. We have en- 
deavored to summarize their responses in the appendix. 
The report is necessarily incomplete. Some schools have 
not been reached, and many have failed to reply. 

To the officers of Harvard and other universities who 
have answered our letters of enquiry, and to the teachers 
of the secondary schools who have responded so gener- 



ously, filling out our blank tables with statistics, setting 
out their views on the questions submitted, and making 
recommendations for improvement, we beg to return our 
hearty thanks. In the tabulation of the statistics many 
uncertainties and variables necessarily occur; and we 
shall be surprised if misinterpretations and inaccuracies 
are not discovered and shall appreciate any corrections 
that may be made. Many most interesting suggestions 
were received which lack of space prevents incorporating 
in full. We recommend that all these responses be turned 
over to the university authorities as permanent records, 
and for such use as they may deem expedient. 

It will be observed that the first five of the inquiries 
relate to the character, quality and size of the school, to 
what extent its graduates go to college, to Harvard, and 
to professional life ; questions 6 to 11 specifically inquire 
as to methods of securing closer relations — as to Har- 
vard entrance requirements and whether any difficulties 
are found therein, and as to the relations of the secondary 
school to the schools below it; questions 12 to 14 relate 
specifically to the subjects of school inspection and admis- 
sion by certificate. 

The answers to these circulars show that far too little 
attention has been paid by the schools, both private and 
public, to the future records of their graduates. From 
more than one avenue has come the suggestion that such 
statistics are wanting at present, but that the inquiry for 
them will itself tend to promote the keeping of such rec- 
ords. 

In the tabular list of schools from which students came 
to Harvard for the ten years, 1895-1904 (President 
Eliot *s report for 1905, pp. 35-370, quoted in our last 



report) there were in all 631 schools listed. These 631 

may be classified and summarized as follows:* 

Public High Schools 235 

Public Normal Schools 8 

American Colleges (other than Harvard) ... 72 
American Universities (other than Harvard) 65 

Private Institutions named as — 

''Schools" 135 

' ' Academies " 66 

''Institutes" 16 

"Latin Schools" 7 

' ' Seminaries " 7 

231 

Foreign Schools, Colleges and Gymnasia 20 

631 

In the ten years reported on, certain well known uni- 
versities sent men to Harvard College as undergraduates 
as follows: 

The University of Kansas, 16 men 

The University of Chicago, 13 men 

Cornell University, 6 men 

Acadia College, 13 men 

The University of Michigan, 11 men 

The University of New Brunswick, 11 men 

Tulane University, 11 men 

University of Minnesota, 9 men 

Bates College, 7 men 

Colby University, 7 men 

Boston University, 6 men 

Amherst College, 11 men 

Earlham College, 6 men 

Other Colleges and Universities, 334 men 

Total undergraduates entering Harvard 

from other colleges and universities, 461 men 

*The foregoing is exclusive of the headings "Private Pupils", "Self 
Prepared Pupils", "Harvard College Special Students" and "Harvard 
Gaduate Students." 

Necessarily there is room for error in such classification. How, fo r 



These colleges, universities, normal schools and for- 
eign schools are among the most valuable contributors 
to Harvard's population, sending usually men who seek 
education in the best institution; and the contribution 
from American colleges generally shows the wholesome 
stimulus which Harvard exerts upon them; but they are 
not, strictly speaking, ^ ^ secondary schools, ' ' and should be 
excluded here; — leaving 466 secondary schools tributary 
to Harvard. Of these 235 (or, including Massachusetts 
^' Latin schools," etc., as counted by President Eliot, for 
1896-1905. 253) are public schools. A rough count shows 
that in the 10 years the 235 known public schools and 4 
Massachusetts Latin schools sent over 2,000 pujjils, 
while the private institutions in all sent less than 1,700 
pupils. A corrected count from President Eliot's 253 
public schools would increase the majority; and, as we 
shall see, the scholarly honors are with them, also. 

These facts show the real democracy of Harvard. 
Again, the public school is the prevailing type of fitting 
school in the West; and, as hereinafter shown, the re- 
cent increase in Harvard's public school quota is from 
outside New England. These facts also show that the 
public schools are the tributaries with which better rela- 
tions may wisely and properly be sought. 

Last year we recommended that greater pub- 
licity be given (1) to the wide range, variety and flex- 
ibility of Harvard's requirements, (2) to the installment 
plan of examinations, (3) an increase in the number of 
distant examinations, (4) the consideration of a system of 
prize scholarships for successful candidates at distant 
examinations, and (5) the inspection of secondary 
schools. 

example, shall "Columbia Institute", be cjassified? President Eliot, 
infra, quotes the number of Public High Schools as 253, thereby in- 
creasing the total by 18 institutions, for 1896-1905. 



5 

On March 1, 1906, the University promulgated rules 
{a) authorizing the substitution of the examinations of 
the College Entrance Examination Board* for those of 
the University; and, (h) liberally extending the install- 
ment plan of examinations, so that now a boy can take 
his examinations in installments, varying in amount 
from a semester's work in a single study, to a year's 
work or the entire preparatory course. 

For acknowledgment of President Eliot's influence in 
reference to the Entrance Board, see App. II, p. 9, infra. 

The bugbear of a single examination on the entire work 
of two, four or more years, with the inevitable cramming 
process leading up to it, is no longer a compulsory feat- 
ure of admission to Harvard. 

The significant announcement is as follows : 

*^A candidate for admission to Harvard College 
who wishes to substitute examinations of the Col- 
lege Entrance Examination Board for the regular 
Harvard admission examinations may make in 1906 
such substitutions as are indicated below (with a de- 
tailed list of studies appended) : 

* # # # # 

^^ Changes in Rules Governing Admission. 

^^ Hereafter, candidates who at any time before 
their preparation is complete wish to take examina- 
tions in subjects in which they are ready for exam- 
ination may, with the approval of their school, offer 
themselves either in June or September for examina- 
tion in any subject or subjects in which they present 
a certificate of preparation. Consequently, the old 
rules, (1) that candidates may not divide their ex- 
aminations except between two years, and (2) that 
candidates failing in June may not be re-examined 
in September in the same subjects, are abolished. 

* The College Entrance Examination Board is a body consisting of 
representatives of 28 colleges and universities (including Harvard) and 
seven representatives of secondary schools. 

Secretary: Thomas S. Fiske, Ph. D. P. O. Sub-Station 84, N. Y. 



''Hereafter, preliminary candidates who have re- 
ceived certificates of preparation from their schools 
will be credited with any subject or subjects in which 
they pass. The old rule, which fixed a minimum 
number of points for which credit was given at a 
preliminary examination (eight for Harvard Col- 
elge, and six for the Scientific School), is abolished. 

' ' These changes have been made in the interest of 
greater freedom, both for schools and for students, 
and to prevent overcrowding school programmes, 
especially in the last two years, with subjects already 
sufficiently studied, which students are obliged to 
carry for examination purposes only. The Com- 
mittee hope that as a result of changes which allow 
candidates to take examinations when they are pre- 
pared, and to retain credit for whatever they actually 
accomplish, students will be able to make greater 
progress, either in the fields of study in which they 
have already been examined, or in other fields, and 
to do work of better quality." {Announcement of 
the Committee on Admission, March i, 1906.) 

Eelative to point 3 above, recommending the exten- 
sion of examinations to distant points, and to the whole 
subject of the relations of the University to secondary 
schools, we are advised by Secretary J. G-. Hart, under 
date of March 19, 1906, as follows : 

' ' You will be glad to hear that we have been doing 
many things here in Cambridge this year, which will 
have the etfect, I think, of making closer relations 
between the University and secondary schools. Up 
to this year, admission to the University was in the 
hands of five different Committees, which often 
worked at cross purposes, and caused misunder- 
standings between schools and the University. These 
fiiYe Committees have been superseded by one; and 
that Committee is hard at work revising the whole 
system of admission. Already it has brought about 
the acceptance of Board Examinations as substitutes 
for Harvard examinations, and has thereby extended 
the influence of the University over a much wider 



territory. The examinations for admission to Har- 
vard will be held this June in about one hundred and 
fifty places, as against the forty places in which 
they were held last June. The Committee has also 
brought about changes in the rules governing admis- 
sion, which have removed some of the most frequent 
causes of complaint made by schools about the work- 
ings of admission requirements.'' 

These signs of advancement are certainly encourag- | 

ing, and give the Associated Harvard Clubs ground for ' 

belief that the closer relations which they have recom- 
mended are dear to the University, and will be the ob- 
jects of its constant care. 

(4) On the subject of scholarships for successful can- 
didates at distant examinations it may be observed that 
the Catalogue for 1905-6', page 546, recites : 

^' These scholarships are restricted, with a few 
exceptions, to resident students," and (p. 579) : 

^^The income of the Price-Greenleaf Pund is dis- 
tributed in sums of from $100 to $250 a year : First, 
to undergraduates in the first year of their resi- 
dence (whether freshmen or students admitted to 

advanced standing, with or without examination) ; 
« «• * 

* ^ Price-Greenleaf Aid can be given only to under- 
graduates of Harvard College. 

^^The regular assignment to first-year students is 
made before or at the time of their entrance. To 
hope for a share in this assignment the applicant 
must be strongly recommended by the college, acad- 
emy or school with which he has been connected; 
* * # 

^^In every case the amount assigned is payable 
(but only to persons who may be undergraduates at 
the time of payment) in two installments, at the time 
of presentation of each of the two term-bills of the 
year. ' ' 

Dean Hurlbut writes : 

'*The first assignment (of Price-Greenleaf Aid) 



8 

is made in June to men who propose to be freshmen 
the following September; that is, it may be given 
before the candidate has taken any of his examina- 
tions for Harvard." (Letter of February 10, 1905.) 

It would therefore appear that it is feasible for the 
University to use some of its scholarship funds to attract 
the best scholars from distant secondary schools. 

There will always be the question, ''Is it better to at- 
tract the best scholars from distant schools, or to retain 
those from near-by, well known schools?" It is to be 
regretted that any such comparison of local interests 
should even seem to be necessary ; and it is to be hoped 
that in time the University will have sufficient resources 
to be able to attract and retain them both. 

In connection with this subject it is to be observed 
that some of the State universities have now, for several 
years, been offering free scholarships as prizes to candi- 
dates for admission from the public schools of their re- 
spective States, under restrictions deemed suitable by 
the authorities of those universities for securing the best 
results at the examinations. 

In response to inquiry. Dr. W. W. Pillsbury, Eegistrar 
of the University of Illinois, writes : 

''For some years prior to 1905, the Board of 
Trustees of the University of Illinois had offered 
a scholarship to each county, the scholarship to be 
won at a competitive examination, which covered 
in full the entrance requirements. For a few years 
prior to that date, the University had allowed on 
similar terms a scholarship to accredited schools. 
These were good for four years, and a second 
scholarship was not awarded until the end of the 
four years, unless a vacancy occurred earlier. 

In 1895 the G-eneral Assembly (Session Laws 
Illinois, 1895, page 324) passed a law with regard 



9 

to scholarships, and the scholarship named above 
were no longer offered. 

In 1899 the Trustees offered a scholarship in 
agriculture to each county in the state, except Cook 
and Lake, and one to each of the first ten congres- 
sional districts. 

In 1900 this offer was duplicated for young 
women who wished to pursue a course in house- 
hold science. 

The record of persons who have attended the 
University during the years 1896-7 to 1905-6 on 
these scholarships is as follows: 

SCHOLAKSHIPS IN UnR^ERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 







AGRICUL- 


HOUSEHOLD 


YEAR. 


STATE. 


TURAL. 


SCIENCE. 


1896-7 


11 






1897-8 


30 







1898-9 


54 








1899-1900 


70 


70 




1900-1 


91 


131 




1901-2 


128 


166 


19 


1902-3 


163 


178 


28 


1903-4 


230 


190 


30 


1904-5 


280 


187 


55 


1905-6 


308 


188 


62 



As you are, I presume, aware, the General As- 
sembly at the session of 1905 (Session Laws Illi- 
nois, 1905, page 360) passed a law by which the 
law of 1895 was repealed, and providing that one 
scholarship should be given by the University to 
each county, and that each member of the General 
Assembly might nominate one candidate for a 
scholarship. 

Also the University has just offered scholar- 
ships, one to each county, in ceramics. 

In order to advertise these scholarships, the 
University has issued circulars, which it has sent 
out to the county superintendents and to the prin- 
cipals of the high schools. 

The State scholarships too have been noticed 
from time to time in many of the papers. 



10 

The agricultural scholarships have been adver- 
tised quite generally by the Illinois State Farm- 
ers' Institute and by the local county institutes. 

The scholarships for household science have 
been advertised through the Illinois State Farm- 
ers' Institute and through the domestic science 
associations. County superintendents and high 
school principals have also been supplied with cir- 
culars with regard to both the agricultural and 
household science scholarships, and they have 
been noticed more or less in the agricultural 
papers of the state. 

The ceramics scholarship has been also adver- 
tised quite extensively through all the clay-work- 
ing associations of the state, and especially at their 
annual meeting held here a short time ago. These 
circulars have also been sent to the county super- 
intendents. 

Doubtless these scholarships have had some 
effect in increasing the attendance at the Univer- 
sity, not so much, however, as one might anticipate 
from the number of them. The reason for this 
doubtless is that the scholarship in each case 
amounts simply to a remission of certain fees; 
namely, the matriculation fee of $10 and the inci- 
dental fees of $12 each half year, a total for a four 
years' course being $106. Since the fees are so 
small at the University as compared with the fees 
at colleges and universities not maintained by the 
State, the scholarships have not a very large 
money value. Perhaps they have had more to do 
with bringing us students in the agricultural de- 
partment than in any other department of the Uni- 
versity. 

No attempt has been made to compare care- 
fully the records of scholarship students with the 
records of students not holding scholarships. I 
did, however, find upon investigating the record 
of one or two classes that the continuance in at- 
tendance was much better on the part of scholar- 
ship students than of those who were paying fees. 
This doubtless was due to the fact that a consid- 



11 

erable number of the scholarship students are 
young men who have found it necessary to earn a 
considerable part of their expenses, and who, con- 
sequently, appreciate more highly the help which 
the scholarship gives them than do those with 
whom funds are abundant. 

I should expect, upon looking into the matter 
of scholarships, that the average standing of schol- 
arship students is higher than those who do not 
hold scholarships." 

The University of Illinois is taken as a convenient ex- 
ample of the quite general practice of State universities. 
The State university gives an education at nominal cost, 
and then, to superior scholars, it remits even the nom- 
inal cost. The awarding of the scholarship may be, and 
frequently is, more significant as a mark of distinction 
than as a pecuniary aid ; and may frequently serve as the 
initial attraction and stimulus to a higher education unto 
some who would not otherwise have gained such educa- 
tion, and yet who, when drawn to the university, have 
developed elements of superior quality and value. The 
matter is referred to here simply to indicate its recent 
growth into an important factor affecting the destination 
of the university-going population. The State universi- 
ties are determined to obtain a large and increasing pro- 
portion of the graduates of the public high schools, and 
have superior correlation to them and opportunities for 
reaching them; and as President Eliot states in his re- 
port for 1902-3, pp. 14, 15, the statistics, in reference 
to admission examinations, and to distinctions in college 
work which he there arrays, 'Hend to prove that the 
product of the public school has more character and 
power of work than the product of the other schools''; 
and, *^the candidates who come from public high schools 
were decidedly the most successful at the admission 



12 

examinations''; and (as to graduation at Harvard witli 
distinction), ''again the honors belong to the public 
schools." 

The state universities have better opportunities for 
obtaining these students who have more character and 
power of work. 

If Harvard is to continue to assemble the best scholars 
from these public schools to which the state universities 
have vital and much closer relations, she may well con- 
sider means of improving her own relations with them. 

Keferring to the total list of schools contributing 
pupils to Harvard College, President Eliot in his report 
for 1904-5, page 32, says: 

' ^ The number of public schools which from time to time 
send some of their pupils to Harvard College is increas- 
ing. 

In the ten years, 1876-1885, there were 82 such schools. 

In the ten years, 1881-1890, there were 96 such schools. 

In the ten years, 1886-1895, there were 132 such schools. 

In the ten years, 1891-1900, there were 163 such schools. 

In the ten years, 1896-1905, there were 253 such schools. 

In 1895, 55 public schools (of which 36 were Massachu- 
setts High or Latin schools) sent pupils to the College; in 
1900, 84 public schools (of which 46 were Massachusetts 
High or Latin schools) sent pupils to the College, and of 
the other 38 public schools, nine were in New England, 
and twenty-nine outside of New England; in 1905, 71 
public schools (of which 38 were Massachusetts High or 
Latin schools) sent pupils to the College, and of the other 
33 public schools, five were in New England, and 28 out- 
side of New England. Ten years ago there were only 13 
such schools outside New England. These figures show 



13 

that the connection of Harvard College proper with Mas- 
sachusetts High Schools and other New England High 
Schools is not as good today as it was ^ve years ago/' 

And they also show that the connection of Harvard 
with High Schools outside New England is better than it 
was ten years ago ; and that with this favorable disposi- 
tion in the High Schools of the rest of the country there 
is a great opportunity for further development in this 
respect. 

The attendance at Harvard has fluctuated notably in 
recent years. In explaining such fluctuations, among the 
factors which must be taken into account are the increas- 
ing facilities and attractions of the State universities. 
The State universities do indeed appeal in some ways to 
a different constituency, and do employ some factors 
(e. g., household science) which are not to be thought of 
at Harvard ; but in their visitations of the public schools, 
and in the inducements which State universities rightly 
employ to secure the best scholars from the secondary 
schools, it may be that they have furnished an example 
which Harvard may consider with profit. 

(5) The system of inspection and admission by certi- 
ficate. 

The report of the United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation for 1902, devotes Chapter XII (pp. 527-539) to a 
discussion of this subject. It assembles statistics which 
show that at that time there were 339 colleges and uni- 
versities in the United States which admitted students 
to the freshmen class upon certificates from accredited 
preparatory or secondary schools. *^In some of the in- 
stitutions included in this list,'' says the Commissioner, 
"an examination is required in some particular subject 
or subjects, as, for instance, in Cornell University, an 



14 

Examination is required in English.'^ Of the 339 insti- 
tutions there summarized, the New England and North 
Atlantic States contain institutions employing this sys- 
tem as follows : 

Maine 3 New York 21 

New Hampshire 2 New Jersey 2 

Vermont 3 Pennsylvania 21 

Massachusetts 10 Delaware . 1 

Ehode Island 2 Maryland 5 

Connecticut 3 District of Columbia. . . 3 

76 

Among these are such institutions as Bates and Colby, 
Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Brown, Trinity, Hamil- 
ton, Hobart, Cornell, Rutgers, Lehigh, Lafayette, the 
University of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Johns Hopkins 
and Columbia University. 

A few points in the history of the system may be taken 
from the address of Professor A. S. Whitney, of the 
University of Michigan, delivered at the annual meeting 
for 1902 of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory 
Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, at Balti- 
more, Md., and printed in the School Review for Febru- 
ary, 1903. 

Professor Whitney (describing the work at Michigan) 

says: 

^ ' In the early beginnings of the accrediting system^ 
(1872), a committee of the faculty, upon special in- 
vitation of superintendents and boards of education, 
annually visited the high schools and examined their 
courses of study, methods of instruction, scholarship 
of teachers and pupils, library and laboratory facili- 
ties, and prevailing intellectual and moral condi- 
tions. In addition, schedules of test questions, pre- 
viously prepared for use of visiting committees, 
were assigned the various classes and their written 



15 

answers submitted as confirmatory evidence of the 
character of the work accomplished. These findings 
were reported to the faculty, and upon their char- 
acter was determined the future relationship be- 
tween each individual high school and the univer- 
sity. 

****** 

^^This system prevailed until three years ago 
(1899), when stress of numbers, inadaptability of 
certain members of the faculty to do the work of in- 
spection, and a desire for greater uniformity of 
standards and methods necessitated a change. Fol- 
lowing the example of several of her sister institu- 
tions, the University of Michigan appointed a spe- 
cial official to take sole charge of inspection and to 
report his findings to a so-called diploma school- 
committee, composed of heads of departments, with 
the president of the university as chairman. This 
plan of inspection now obtains, in some form or 
other, in connection with all the great universities 
of the Northwest, except the universities of Min- 
nesota and Indiana. The smaller institutions gen- 
erally accept the standards set by the great univer- 
sities of their respective States. (Minnesota uses 
the system with modifications, see App. II, p. 1.) 

* ^ The inspector visits the schools without previous 
notification. He learns the population of the city, 
the total enrollment of the schools, the enrollment 
in the high school, and the number of teachers em- 
ployed, both in the grades and in the high school. 
He acquaints himself with the teachers of the high 
school, inquires concerning their academic and pro- 
fessional preparation, the subjects they teach, and 
the number and average length of their daily class 
periods. He visits the class rooms, analyzes the 
work of the teachers, and endeavors to determine 
the efficiency of each by noting his aim and plan of 
lesson, his mastery of the subject, his skill in adapt- 
ing the lesson to the needs and capacities of his 
pupils, his ability to analyze and classify difficulties, 
his power to attract and hold attention, his skill in 
the art of questioning, his assignment of the lesson ; 



16 

he also notes the manner in which the pupils have 
attacked the lesson, their habits of thought and study 
and the general spirit and progress of the class. He 
examines the course of study, the text-books used, 
the library and laboratory facilities; he takes note 
of the plan of organization, the character and meth- 
ods of discipline, and the intellectual and moral tone 
of the school ; and he ascertains the average size of 
the graduating classes, the number of graduates at- 
tending higher institutes of learning, the number 
now preparing for such education, the attitude of the 
patrons and the community toward the school and 
toward educational affairs generally. Finally, he 
examines the structure, capacity, heating, lighting 
and ventilating of school buildings. 

As to admission by certificate he says : 

* ^ At least four conditions must be fulfilled before 
an applicant can receive recognition at the hands 
of the university: 

^ ' 1. The applicant must have received his prepar- 
atory training in an accredited high school. 

^^2. The applicant must be a graduate of an ac- 
credited high school. The university sets the stamp 
of its disapproval upon non-high school graduates 
and will give them no recognition (by the accredit- 
ing system) whatever. Only the finished high school 
product receives consideration. 

-'3= The applicant must present a regulation cer- 
tificate, furnished by the university and properly 
filled and signed by the superintendent or principal 
of high school; this certificate states that he has 
completed all the work required for entrance to the 
university and specifies the branches pursued, num- 
ber of weeks and of recitations per week devoted 
to each, text-books used, and the teacher's estimate 
of his scholarship in the several branches. 

'^4. The applicant must furnish a recommenda- 
tion from the superintendent, high school principal, 
or faculty attesting their belief in his ability to pur- 
sue university work with pleasure and profit to him- 
self and credit to the university. 



17 

^ ' It -should be observed that after the first semi- 
annual examination of the freshman year the rec- 
ords of scholarship attained by the students thus 
recommended are reported back to their respective 
high schools, and the credit or discredit, after mak- 
ing due alloYv^ances for changed conditions, is 
charged accordingly. So deeply is the responsibility 
felt by high school authorities that they are wont to 
exaggerate on the side of conservatism. This is not 
only the testimony of superintendents and principals 
themselves, but it is demonstrated by the fact that 
every year numbers of students who have been re- 
fused recommendations by the accredited schools 
present themselves and enter the university by way 
of the examination door. This requirement has led 
not a few high school authorities to grade the diplo- 
mas granted to the graduating classes as ^A' and 
^B,' the former entitling the holder to certificates of 
admission to the university and the latter withhold- 
ing such privilege. 

*^As to scholarship, little better can be done than 
to summarize a report made by a committee of the 
faculty appointed to investigate the standings of 
students admitted on certificate as compared with 
those admitted on examination for the first nine 
years of the existence of the accrediting system. 
This committee made a careful study of the exam- 
ination records of all the members of the freshmen 
classes for the period named, and tabulated the re- 
sults in such manner as to show separately the 
standings of those admitted on certificate and those 
admitted on examination — a study involving more 
than 1,000 students and more than 10,000 examina- 
tions. The committee refrained from examining the 
records subsequent to the freshman year, in the be- 
lief that one year in the university ought to oblit- 
erate the main distinctions arising from differences 
in preparatory schools. From the tables thus 
framed and classified the committee computed the 
percentages of scholarships from each class by div- 
iding the number of examinations successfully 



18 

passed by the number that, by order of the faculty, 
ought to have been passed. The following are the 
results obtained: 

Total number of students admitted on certi- 
ficate 470 

The percentage of scholarship 88.91 

The total number of students admitted on ex- 
amination 574 

The percentage of scholarship 87 . 22 

^^It will be observed that the committee found a 
slight balance in favor of admission by certificate, 
showing that the university was the gainer, rather 
than the loser, by the change. 

^^1. Its Inflence Upon Standards. — Before a 
school can be accredited ^^ must offer all the branches 
required at the university for admission; it must ^pur- 
sue them for certain periods of time, the minimum 
of which is specified; it must give suitable oppor- 
tunities for library and laboratory work, and it must 
attain a certain fiked degree of thoroughness, vital- 
ity, and spirit of scholarship. The inspector comes, 
backed by all the authority and influence of a great 
university, examines these standards according to 
his definitely fixed ideals, and reports back to the 
proper authorities. Upon this report hang in a 
large measure the reputation, the influence, and the 
prestige of the school, and therefore a favorable out- 
come is highly prized. Inspectors are frequently 
requested by superintendents to examine their 
schools unofficially for the sole purpose of aiding 
them in marking and bettering their standards. 

^*2. Its Influence Upon the Teaching Force. — 
After the inspector has examined a high school, as 
heretofore outlined, comes the conference. Here he 
explains to the superintendent or principal the con- 
ditions as he sees them, commending the good and 
pointing out the bad. He explains the theories of 
the university, changes in requirements for admis- 
sion, and plans in operation in the best high schools, 
and he suggests ways and means for correcting defi- 



19 

ciencies and laying solid foundations for scholar- 
ship. He advises also concerning the organization, 
the methods of discipline, the courses of study, libra- 
ry and laboratory facilities, text-books, and sup- 
plies. The inspector listens in turn to a statement 
of their difficulties, fears, hopes, and ambitions, and 
aids to the best of his ability in their proper solution. 
He meets the teachers if need be and gives them op- 
portunity to ask for his criticisms, suggestions, and 
help, an opportunity of which they freely avail them- 
selves. If the standards of the school are only mod- 
erately satisfactory or are too low to warrant es- 
tablishment of accredited relationship, it is placed 
on the 'nursing list' and re-examined the following 
year. If conducted frankly and sympathetically the 
conference hour can be made productive of immea- 
surable benefit. 

^^3. Its Influence Upon Pupils. — The influence of 
the accrediting system upon pupils has already been 
indicated. There needs to be added, however, that 
the opening of the university door to all properly ac- 
credited students is not the only potent influence at 
work among them. The repeated visits of the uni- 
versity inspector are of scarcely less importance. 
They arouse among the pupils of the average high 
school a spirit of inquiry concerning colleges and 
universities; they set them to thinking and to talk- 
ing about going to college, they intensify their de- 
sires and stimulate their ambitions to make the trial. 



^^4. Its influence Upon the Boards of Education 
and the Communities. — The boards of education and 
the communities always desire the highest possible 
efficiency of their schools, and they have come to 
measure this efficiency by the recognition the schools 
receive at the hands of the university. They there- 
fore cordially invite the university inspector, earn- 
estly seek his opinions and advice, and give serious 
consideration to all his recommendations." 



** President Angell in his annual report for 1882 
says: 

^^ ^This innovation on old customs, like all in- 
novations, and chiefly because it was an innova- 
tion, was met at once with severe criticisms, and 
especially by some distinguished educators in the 
older colleges, fearing, as was alleged, that such 
a system would bring down the standards of col- 
leges. Experience, however, has proved that there 
was no ground for fear, except that the thing was 
new and not practiced in the mother colleges. Two 
facts are to be noted among the results: (1) The 
standard of preparation in the high schools, if 
affected at ail, has been elevated rather than low- 
ered; (2) the State system of education has be- 
come a reality. It is obvious that there can be no 
system, properly so called, without an actual and 
living connection and communication among its 
members. By calling for the visiting or examin- 
ing committee of the faculty the high schools have 
been brought into that vital connection with the 
university which makes them parts of a natural 
organism and, so far as concerns our schools, our 
State system no longer exists merely on paper. 

^^ *No one can look into the condition of these 
schools without feeling satisfied that this con- 
nection has had the effect both to animate their 
students and to encourage and strengthen the 
teachers, while it has brought about a more per- 
fect unity of plan and method in the schools of the 
State in general. In short, it gives to our schools, 
otherwise isolated, a bond of union and a center of 
life. We are convinced, as the result of an experi- 
ment of ten years, that this co-operation plan, es- 
pecially if entered into by the few remaining 
schools, and thus perfected, will give a charac- 
ter of consistency, solidity, strength, and efficiency 
to the educational work of the State, which will 
leave nothing further to be desired but the unin- 
terrupted operation and movement of +^^e sys- 
tem.''' 



21 

Prof. Whitney adds : 

**At that time there were 16 schools upon the ac- 
credited list; to-day (1902) the number has swelled 
to 250. In a recent interview President Angell, in 
the light of the twenty years that have passed since 
that report was written, emphatically confirms the 
position there taken.'* 

Professor E. G. Dexter, of the Chair of Education 

at the University of Illinois (to whom we are indebted 

for the bibliographic list) says (National Conference 

on Secondary Education and Its Problems, N. W. U., 

1901, pp. 96-97): 

''In 1895 a regular high school visitor was first 
appointed (by the University of Illinois for the 
high schools of Illinois), the examination of schools 
having been up to that time carried on by means 
of occasional visits by various members of the Uni- 
versity faculty. For the years since that time the 
number of schools upon the accredited list is as fol- 
lows : 

1896 . . 135 1898 . . 163 1900 . . 193 1902 . . 231 
1897 . . 150 1899 . . 179 1901 . . 208 1903 . . 250 

From Leland Stanford Junior University Eegistrar 
Elliott sends us a letter strongly commending the sys- 
tem of accredited schools maintained by the State Uni- 
versity of California, and adds: 

''At present, however, the requirements of the 
two universities are so nearly in accord that we ac- 
cept California's accrediting without question. I 
may say that the system developed by the State 
University for California schools seems to me more 
efficient than any I am acquainted with. The rela- 
tions between the fitting schools and the university 
are very close and have been mutually helpful and 
satisfactory. There has naturally been some com- 
plaint of arbitrary action on the part of the ex- 
aminers, but I have found in general that high 



22 

school principals regard the relation as beneficial 
and stimulating to the best interests of the school. ' ' 

It is worthy of notice that Leland Stanford should 
thus accept the accrediting of its near neighbor and 
chief rival without question. 

Eegistrar Elliott (of Stanford) sends additional papers 
for use by schools outside of the State of California. 
Among others the blank form to be filled up by the prin- 
cipal, in which, after 24 general questions, the principal is 
required to tabulate the entire work of the pupil in the 
secondary school from beginning to end, stating for each 
study pursued the number of weeks during which it was 
pursued, the number of periods per week, the length of 
the periods, a description of the studies, of the text books 
and the amount covered, of the authors read and the 
pages in each, of the supplemental work done in addi- 
tion to the text book, the date of completing the work 
and the grade attained, together with the specific rec- 
ommendation or denial of recommendation as to each 
particular study separately^ concluding with forms for 
comments, remarks, opinion and certificate by the prin- 
cipal, the whole being accompanied by a warning that 
the same is confidential and should not be made out 
by nor shown to the pupil, and the further warning that 
recommendations from schools whose pupils prove un- 
satisfactory, either because of inadequate preparation, 
or from want of seriousness of purpose, will ultimately 
not be considered. 

From the University of Chicago, Examiner F. J. Mil- 
ler writes : 

''The number of schools examined by the Uni- 
versity is 326, the number approved is 238, with 64 
still awaiting a second visit. Before we take a 



23 

school upon our list we send two separate inspect- 
ors at different times to visit the school, and upon 
the concurrently favorable report of these, the 
school is admitted. We have refused to accept 26 
schools after visiting them at least once. 

****** 

^^The tests which the University has provided to 
determine the efficiency of the secondary schools are 
as follows: 

^'1. The two visits of inspectors which I have 
mentioned above. 

'^2, The reference to each departmental exam- 
iner in the University of the work of the school of- 
fered in the several departments. The data thus 
referred are taken from the reports of the school 
itself upon its own work. 

^^3. The observation of the work of the students 
from the school. It is our custom each spring quar- 
ter, generally in the month of May, to gather to- 
gether the results of the work of all the students 
from the different schools who entered in the pre- 
vious fall quarter. 

****** 

^^We very frequently do accept a school with the 
exception of some one or two departments. It 
often happens that a really good school is weak in 
certain spots and I do not know of a more helpful 
influence in the school than the refusal of our in- 
spectors to approve these weak spots. Principals 
have said to me that this gives them an argument 
to take before their boards, (who are often preju- 
diced in favor of certain individuals), which is 
stronger than anything they could advance from 
their own local standpoint. And thus it often hap- 
pens that schools are strengthened as a direct result 
of our suggestions. '^ 

Ohio State University has a system of admission both 
by examination and by certificate. Its high school visitor 
devotes his whole time to inspecting schools of the state. 
The approved schools that prepare for all courses in the 



24 - 

University, and indeed for all American universities, 
constitute the accredited list; and their graduates enter 
upon certificate. Grraduates of a second list of recognized 
schools are accredited to the extent of their certificates 
in studies as to which the schools are approved, and 
examined in other required studies. Non-graduates of 
these two classes of schools, and of all unaccredited 
schools, are fully examined. The Ohio State University 
is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges 
and Secondary Schools, and as such, honors certificates 
of schools accredited annually by the Association's in- 
spectors; and the University, apparently holds that ''it 
is safe for any institution to honor certificates on the 
North Central lisf 

Against this view we may commend to careful atten- 
tion the '^Eeport on Admission to College on Certificate 
and Examination," by Principal Charles C. Ramsey, of 
Fall River, Mass., published in Volume 8 of the School 
Reviow, December, 1900, pp. 593-604, with the discus- 
sion thereon, pp. 605-611, by President Eliot and others. 

The substance of the objection to the certificate sys- 
tem is the fear that it will be abused ; that the inspections 
will become even more perfunctory than they are be- 
lieved by some to be at present; that the secondary 
schools, anxious to please their patrons, favor their 
scholars, or perhaps get rid of undesirables, will improp- 
erly certify them to the colleges ; and that in the absence 
of the wholesome check believed to be exerted by the in- 
dependent entrance examinations of the colleges, there 
will be a general decline in the scholarly standards for 
admission. The defenders of the system maintain that 
the secondary schools are strongly cautioned against 
these dangers by the still greater danger of thereby los- 



25 

ing their places on the accredited list, and that in fact, 
up to date, the tendency is in the opposite direction, viz. : 
to greater rigor but greater fairness by the Associated 
Colleges in the accrediting of the schools, and by the 
schools in the certifying of their pupils, than exists 
under the examination system itself. 

Eeferring to the statistics assembled by Prof. Ramsey, 

Prof. Dexter, of Illinois University, writes : 

*^The returns were in favor of the certificated 
students; in mental ability, five to one; in the gen- 
eral performance of college duties, three to one.'' 

The list of articles in the Appendix also contains illus- 
trative extracts from a series of other articles, both on 
the certificate system and on the examination system. 
The evils of the examination system are freely recognized 
by the great majority of teachers, and are frequently 
deplored as inevitable. 

After a presentation of illustrations of these evils, 

taken from the papers of twelve leading schools and 

academies of New England, Hon. Charles Francis 

Adams, of the Class of '56, says on this subject, in the 

Graduates Magazine for January, 1893: 

^^Do not the results of the present system of fit- 
ting for the college entrance examination tend to 
show that the system now in use, at Cambridge at 
least, is working serious educational injury, and 
stands in urgent need of immediate and radical ref- 
ormation! Might not better general results be at- 
tained (worse, in some respects, would scarcely be 
possible!) if, in the case of some dozen or twenty 
institutions which would agree to conform their 
whole system of courses and instruction to certain 
approved and specified methods, and a defined and 
definite programme of studies, the entrance exam- 
inations were wholly done away with, and students 



26 

were admitted on probation by certificate? Might 
not the experiment be at least well worthy of trial? 

^^ Candidates from other schools not of recognized 
standing as preparatory institutions might always 
present themselves for examination, as now, and the 
list of officially accepted academies might be annu- 
ally revised, and increased or reduced in the light 
of practical results. No academy, once accepted, 
could afford to be stricken from the list, and teach- 
ers would be under continual bond not to certify 
scholars who were unprepared; all such they would 
send up as now to take their chance in the examina- 
tion. 

^ ^ Under such a system the responsibility would be 
transferred from the examiner to the teacher. The 
latter would then have ample room and scope enough. 
No longer compelled tO' cram, he might seek to ed- 
ucate. The college, on the other hand, would bring 
its direct influence to bear on the whole course of 
preparatory education, and not judge of the can- 
didate's proficiency wholly by a superficial exam- 
ination, the result of which, as the papers here 
printed already show, is largely a question of in- 
dividual nerve-power in presence of an ordeal long 
anxiously prepared for. Is it not possible that, by 
this route, the seat of the existing trouble might 
most quickly, as well as most effectually, be 
reached ? ' ' 

The weak point in the system of inspection and accred- 
iting is the inadequacy of the inspection. Upon this 
point President Eliot said (to the N. E. Assn. of Col- 
leges and Prep. Schools, Oct. 12, 1900, 8 School Rev., p. 
610), cited in Appendix II, p. 6, infra: 

''In the first place, in New England we have no 
system of really examining the condition of the sec- 
ondary schools; therefore, the experiment of certi- 
ficates is tried under the most disadvantageous pos- 
sible circumstances. When it was first introduced 
into this country, an argument was made in favor 
of it from the German practice, secondary schools 



27 

in Germany giving an outgoing certificate valid at 
the university. A fatal defect in the argument was 
that the German secondary schools are supervised 
by competent government educational authorities ; 
ours by none. In New England we have nothing 
more than an occasional friendly visit to some 
schools by some college officer. That is an extremely 
weak and imperfect method, though perhaps bet- 
ter than nothing. We are, therefore, trying the cer- 
tificate system under the worst possible conditions. 
The public, or a student of this subject like myself, 
cannot get the facts which are necessary to an under- 
standing of the working of either the certificate or 
the examination method. At Harvard we publish 
every year the number of rejections at our exami- 
nations, the percentage of rejections, the number of 
rejections in every subject in which we examine, 
and the percentage of rejections in the sub- 
ject in which we examine. I know no other 
institution in this country which does this. 
Yet this publicity is necessary to secure for 
a student of the subject the results of the ex- 
perience of large numbers of institutions. Without 
publicity we cannot get evidence of the working of 
these two systems. '^ 

He suggested that in New England the certificate sys- 
tem has the aid of three colleges which adhere solely to the 
examination system; — and whose influence tends to keep 
the secondary school examinations up to a high stand- 
ard. He also pointed out that statistics usually show 
that the certified students stand higher in college than 
the examined students ; but denied that this implied any 
superiority in the certificate system, the fact being that 
where the certificate system prevails, the secondary 
schools certify their superior pupils, leaving the infer- 
ior pupils to take the college examinations. 

This suggests that the secondary schools are doing 
their work in good faith. 



On the same point Dean B. S. Hurlbut writes, under 

date of May 19, 1906, as follows: 

*^ Admission by certificate I do not care for, for 
I believe that examinations, far from perfect tests 
as they may be, are, nevertheless, a better criterion 
of a student's fitness to carry on work in college. I 
do like such an inspection of a student's school rec- 
ord as has now been adopted by our committee on 
admission. This will have, when it considers the re- 
sults of a candidate's examinations, a statement 
from his teacher of the quality of the work in his 
school, and the time devoted to each subject. The 
most important step thai Harvard has taken, the 
details of which are just completed, is the accept- 
ance of the examinations of the College Entrance 
Examination Board as substitutes for our own ex- 
aminations. The board can hold examinations in 
far more places than Harvard can ever hope to, and 
thus bring Harvard within the reach of far more 
boys than would think of coming to Harvard were 
they obliged to go to places where our examinations 
are held. This, I believe, is one of the most impor- 
tant changes our faculty has made in years /^ 

As this report is passing the final proof reading comes 
the letter of Secretary T. G. Hart dated May 21, saying : 

^^I enclose a copy of the circular letter we shall send 
this year to headmasters of schools from which boys 
apply for admission. By means of this letter the Com- 
mittee on Admission will have before them at the time 
when any individual's admission is considered not only 
his examination record but also the kind of information 
that is ordinarily given on certificates such as are used 
in colleges which admit by certificate.'' 

The enclosure is a blank certificate of honorable dis- 
missal, with a page, devoted to ^^ record of school work'', 
providing a schedule of ^'prescribed subjects", ** length 
of time studied", ''hours per week and years", ''aver- 



29 

age grade'', ^^ remarks'' and a space for ^^an estimate of 
the candidates quality". It is somewhat like the Leland 
Stanford certificate but much less thorough and much 
less rigorous. He also sends at the same time copies of 
the article on ^'New Methods of Admission to Harvard" 
reprinted from the Harvard Graduates' Magazine for 
June, 1906, which we include in the Appendix. 

The progressive steps taken by the university during 
the past year deserve recognition by the friends of edu- 
cation everywhere, and are distinctly grounds for con- 
gratulation by the Associated Clubs. They show that 
the university authorities are alert to secure the best 
relations with the secondary schools in all parts of the 
country. These steps are installments leading on to fur- 
ther progress still to be made. 

The responses to our circular indicate that most of the 
schools prefer some form of the accrediting system. 
Those which oppose it are mainly old or well equipped 
schools, whose methods are closely adjusted to the exist- 
ing status quo. Naturally they do not desire to change. 
The schools of the Middle West and South, on the other 
hand, responding to the influence of the State Universi- 
ties, nearly all favor the accrediting system. And it is 
in these fields that Harvard's influence is most needed. 

Upon the whole subject of the relation of the colleges 
and the universities to the secondary schools it may be 
remarked, that the formation, growth and proceedings of 
such bodies as the ^^ National Educational Asso- 
ciation," ^^New England College Entrance Certifi- 
cate Board," the ^^ College Entrance Examination 
Board," the *^ North Central Association of Colleges 
and Secondary Schools," the ** Association of Colleges 
and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Mary- 



30 

land'', the ^^New England Association of Colleges and 
Preparatory Schools", and some other associations 
that might be named, show that the need of such 
closer and more harmonious relations is universally felt, 
and that other institutions are working industriously to 
bring such relations into effect. 

For better, for worse, the system of inspection and ad- 
mission upon certificate is here. A majority of all 
American colleges employ it to some extent. The vital 
criticism against it is that there is too much admission 
by certificate, too little inspection and criticism of the 
secondary schools. 

What should the course of Harvard be? 

Whatever may be said on other phases of the subject 
we may well agree that the opportunity is open for Har- 
vard to take the lead in inspecting such of her tributa- 
ries as invite it; and that there is great need at this 
time of means for promoting a system of critical inspec- 
tion of secondary schools. Harvard authorities object 
to the accrediting system because it is not based on ade- 
quate inspection; and the schools desire to be accred- 
ited and invite the inspection, and thereby afford 
Harvard, as far as may be practicable, the op- 
portunity to exemplify the type of inspection 
that is needed. They hold in substance that Har- 
vard may cultivate closer relations with the sec- 
ondary schools for her own benefit, for the benefit of the 
schools, and for the benefit of the entire country; that 
the inspection of her tributary schools by Har- 
vard University, so far as desired by them, and 
their consequent improvement, would indirectly but in- 
evitably have a beneficial influence on the whole 
8,000 secondary schools referred to in our former 



31 

report. And again they hold that it would benefit the 
whole 500 colleges and universities, and stimulate any 
institution whose methods of inspection are perfunctory, 
to higher and better performance. 

It has been Harvard ^s privilege to take the lead in 
most of the great lasting movements for the improve- 
ment of American education. Here is a movement which 
is being forced upon the universities by the growth, 
the number, the conditions and the needs of the second- 
ary schools. Harvard may well consider the advisability 
of establishing a voluntary system of critical inspec- 
tion of such secondary schools as may invite and wel- 
come her advice. 

The University which can examine effectively several 
thousand pupils every year can develop the methods and 
instrumentalities for successfully examining the schools 
as well. The value of Harvard's approval to the second- 
ary school will be such as to make most schools seek it. 
The disadvantage of Harvard's disapproval will be such 
as to make most schools aim to be superior to the neces- 
sity for it. 

The replies of the more than forty secondary schools 
which have responded to your committee's circular, show 
that they have room for much more thorough and critical 
inspection now, and that substantially all of them would 
welcome such inspection from Harvard, 

It will be observed : 

That by these suggestions the action here proposed is 
limited as follows : 

(1) That the university consider the expediency of 
inspecting such schools as invite inspection. (It is re- 
alized that the university may have knowledge of many 



32 

considerations bearing upon the expediency of snch in- 
spection that may not be accessible to the Committee.) 

(2) Therefore the recommendation is thns limited, 
that such inspection with satisfactory results should pre- 
cede any certification. 

(3) That action on certification is reserved. 

(4) That measures to accomplish such inspection, if 
adopted, will require some time for effectuation. 

(5) That meanwhile the examination system as modi- 
fied by the measures of this year will necessarily remain 
in full force. 

(6) That if such measures be adopted they will not 
displace but rather supplement the modified examination 
system. 

(7) That not a substitute of one for the other but 
the combination of the examination system with the ac- 
crediting system is the ultimate aim of such measures. 

(8) That this combination is apparently supported 
by the experience of most of the 339 colleges and univer- 
sities referred to by the National Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, as well as by most of the answers we have 
received from the schools. 

The investigation of any such question as this inev- 
itably leads to the conclusion that a great opportunity 
lies open before the University; that the present means 
of the University are already overtaxed; and that in 
order to fulfill her mission and take the lead as the mother 
and guardian of schools, as well as the alma mater of 
alumni, her means should be increased, and her resources 
enlarged so as to become proportionate to the oppor- 
tunity before her. 



33 

We recommend action by this body expressing that 
it is the view of the representatives of the Associated 
Harvard Clubs here assembled: 

That we send congratulations to the university for the 
progressive movement which it has begun for closer re- 
lations with the secondary schools, and express our con- 
fidence that it will adopt other wise measures to attain 
this end as rapidly as the prevailing conditions will per- 
mit. 

That among such measures to be taken in the near 
future we commend to the consideration of the univer- 
sity authorities the expediency of giving critical inspec- 
tion to such tributary schools as invite the same. 

That copies of this report be sent to the tributary 
schools as well as to the members of the Associated 
Harvard Clubs. 

And that a new standing committee be appointed to 
continue these inquiries and make further report at the 
next annual session. 

EespectfuUy submitted. 

Meeeitt Staee '81, 

Wilbur H. Siebert '89, 

Committee, 
May 21, 1906. 

For separate report by Professor Albert Bushnell 
Hart, '80, see Appendix IV. 



Appendix: 
I 

Circular Letter to the Secondary Schools, 
with Summaries of Their Replies. 

II 

Selected List of Articles Dealing With the 
Examination System and the Inspection 
and Certificate System of Admis- 
sion to College, 

III 

"New Methods of Admission to Harvard," 

by J. G. Hart '93. Reprinted from 

Harvard Graduates' Magazine 

for June, 1906. 

IV 

Separate Report by Professor Albert 
Bushnell Hart '80. 



APPENDIX I. 
ASSOCIATED HAEVAED CLUBS. 



Committee on Secondary Education. 

Chicago, February 27, 1906. 

To the Principal or Head Master 

High School 

Of - or 

Academy. 



Dear Sir: The undersigned have been appointed by 
the Associated Harvard Clubs a committee to make in- 
quiry in reference to the relation of Secondary schools to 
university education. 

We see in the last annual report of President Eliot 
that your School is mentioned in the list of schools there 
given (pp. 3'59-370) as having prepared pupils for Har- 
vard during the last ten years. 

We are sending out some inquiries to such schools, 
upon which your responses will be gratefully appreciated. 

Different questions will relate more aptly to the facts 
at different schools ; and perhaps no school will be pre- 
pared to furnish answers to all. The representative of 
each school is invited to respond to the questions devel- 
oped by his own experience. 



Among the points of interest upon which you are 
requested to fill in answers upon this sheet, or the blank 
attached, and return to the Committee, are the following: 

1. What courses of study are pursued in your 
School? 

Answer: 



2. What is the total number of boys and number of 
girls graduated by your School, year by year, for the last 
ten years? 

(Please answer if practicable on blank attached.) 

3. How many of these went to college, year by year! 
(Please answer if practicable on blank attached.) 

4. How many went to Habvabd? 

(Please answer if practicable on blank attached.) 

(Probably many of the schools receiving these inquir- 
ies will not have detailed records for filling the entire 
blank for ten years ; but most schools will be able to fill 
out the last group, viz., of * totals," for the current and 
preceding year, which will be appreciated, even if no 
other details are available.) 



3 

5. From your experience, what suggestions have you 
to offer as tending to bring about closer relations be- 
tween the schools of secondary education and the col- 
leges? 

Answer : 



(A fuller answer, by letter, to this and the following 
questions will be appreciated.) 

6. Do you find any difficulty in meeting the entrance 
requirements of HabvaedI 

Answer: 



7. What proportion of the pupils graduating from 
the primary or elementary schools tributary to your 
School enter it or some other secondary school? 

Answer: 



8. What is the state of preparation for secondary- 
work by pupils entering your School ? 

Answer: 



9. What is the quality of the work below the sec- 
ondary school? 

Answer: 



10. Is it practicable by any means (if so, by what 
means) to secure better primary work and an earlier en- 
trance on secondary education! What suggestions, if 
any, does the experience of your School suggest in refer- 
ence to this? 

Answer: 



5 

11. In how many colleges and universities is your 
School so accredited that its pupils are admitted upon 
certificate ? 

Answer : 



12. To what extent is yonr school ^^ visited,'' ^in- 
spected," or ^^ examined" by representatives of colleges 
or universities ; and would such inspection be welcomed 
by your authorities 1 

Answer: 



Signed : 

Principal of 



School. 



6 



We have prepared some tables of blank forms cover- 
ing some of these points, which we enclose herewith, and 
should be glad to have returned filled up, so far as may 
be practicable and agreeable to you, with statistics of 
your School. 

We need hardly say that the "Associated Harvabd 
Clubs is not an agent of the University. It is a volun- 
tary association of clubs of Hakvaed men in different 
parts of the country who prize the cause of education 
and who love the University; and who are encouraged 
by the cordial interest taken by theUniversity teachers 
in he efforts of the Association to increase the influence 
ot the University throughout the country. 

The present inquiry goes to other representative 
schools, and it is hoped that there will be such general 
response as to afford the nucleus of a fund of informa- 
tion valuable at once to the schools responding, to the 
University, and to the cause of education. 

May we, therefore, request that you will devote a few 
moments to filling up the blanks in the tables enclosed 
and to noting answers to the other inquiries upon which 
the experience of your School may throw light and re- 
turn same to the chairman at his address given below. 

Appreciating the courtesy of your attention and re- 
sponse, we are. 

Very respectfully, 

^7 • r,, WiLBUS H. SlEBEET, 

Ohto State University, Columbus. 

Albert B. Haet, 
Harvard University, Cambridge. 
Meebitt Stare, 

Chairman. 
916 Monadnock Building, Chicago. 
Committee. 



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SUMMARIES OF RESPONSES FROM SCHOOLS SENDING BOYS TO HARVARD. 

TABLE I. 





Nam" of 




No. of their Gr.iduates. 


No. of Gradu- 


No. of their 
Graduates 


lSFS£ 




School. Location 


Course* of S(udy. 


For I^n 

10 Ye»r^. 

Boy». Girls. 


lASt 

Year. 
Boys. Girls. 


«?IS?' 


EnteriiiK 
Yean.. 




~T" 


Adelphi Brooklyn. 
Academy, xN Y 


Classical. Two others 


10. 238 


11 30 


300 




85%- 
















2 


Bangor, Bangor, 
High School. Me 


Four " 


187 299 


24 46 


43 




90% 
















3 


Galveston, Ball Galveston, 
High S. Tex. 


•• Two ■• 


89 158 


9 25 


40 




75% 


4 


Bloomington Bloomington, 

H. S. 111. 
Cleveland Central Cleveland, 


Four " 


110 250 


14 40 


166 




80 to 90 % 


5 


Two 


1915 


190 


347 


23 


Best, 100% 




High S.. 












Poorest. 10% 


6 


Cutler A. H 

Priv S. 
Colorado Springs Colorado Springs, 

H. S., Col. 
Cleveland Cleveland, 


•• e,al 


2 51 


39 


128 


n6 


Practically all 


7 


" Three " 


115 216 


44 


16S 




95% 


8 


-, 














West High, Ohio. 














9 


Cook Acad Montour Falls, 

N Y 
Denver Denver, 


■* 










90% 


10 


Two 


450 650 




30% to 40% 




80% 




High S. (No 1) 1 Col. 














11 


De Lancey Phila., 

^ Pa. 
Davenport Davenport, 
H. I, fa. 


Three " 


150 (7 yns.) 


20 




29 




12 


Two '• 


132 285 


26 50 




•^ 


33% 


13 


Episcopal Lancaster, 
(Yeates) Academy, Pa. 


One 


34 




10 


c 




14 


Englewood (Chicago) Chicago, 
Groton' School Groton, 


•' et al. " 


1500c.rc3 




20% 




80% 


15 


•• 


200 




115(7 yrs) 


121 






Mass. 














16 


Goodyear (Misses) Syracuse, 
School. K. Y. 


•• et al 


14 










17 


Holbrook's Mililarv Sing Sing, 
Acad. • ^r. Y. 


Two others 


16S 










18 


Harvard School. Chicago. 


" " " 


94 




85 






19 


Hughes Cincinnati, 
School, 0. 





446 757 




40% (circ ) 




50% 


20 


Hotchkiss LakcNille, 
School, Conn. 





400 circa 




8a% Yale 
10% -f Harv 


18 




21 


Indianapolis Indianapolis 
Shortridge H S. Ind. 


Four " 


l.^O total 
per an. circ. 








75% 


22 


Chicago Latin Chicago, 
Priv.Hie. 


T^TO •' 


70 




52 


11 




23 


Lake Forest, Lake Forest, 
Acad. 111. 


One " 


104 










24 


La Grange La Grange, 
HiRh School HI. 


et al 


20 (per an 
circ ) 








90%. 


25 


Morrislown Morristown, 
School. N. J. 





33 




2$ 


12 




26 


Milwaukee Milwaukee. 
West Side High Wis. 


Five " 


196 305 


32 54 


144 54 




60% 


27 


Milwaukee Milwaukee, 
Academy. Wis. 


Two 


65 




20 




Practically afl 


28 


ObcTlin Oberlin, 
Academy, Ohio. 






45 








29 


Orchard Lake Orchard Lake, 
Military Acad Mich. 


ctal 


207 










30 


Northwestern Evanston, 
Academy. Ill 





321 193 


32 12 


80% fcirc ) 






30 


Oneoutii State. Oneonta, 
Normal, N. Y. 


One " 










Nearly air 


31 


Pittsfield Pittsfield. 
High, Mass. 


Three " 


143 311 


12 47 


61 17 




90% 


53 


Prosso Kansas City, 
Prep , Mo. 


et al 




22 








33 


Patterson-Davenport Louisville, 
School, Ky 


" One " 




8 








35 


Rayen Youngstown. 
School, Ohio. 


■et al 


221 370 


30 35 




16 


66% 


3d 


Pittsburg Shadyside Pittsburg, 

Academy, Pa. 
Rcdlands Union High Redlands 


Two 


270 








95%; 


37 


et al. 


96 150 


20 17 


121 




90% 




School, Calif. 














38 


(Tenn. Univ )— Baker Knoxville, 
Himel School, Tenn. 














39 


Cincinnati Cincinnati, 
Woodland High, O. 


" One " 


317 446 


40 44 








40 


Detroit Detroit, 
Central High Mich. 


ct al 


.565 1098 


77 127 






90% 


44 


Asheville Asheville. 
Academy, N. Car. 


One 


38 (5 yrs ) 


11 








45 


University School Detroit, 
of Detroit Mich. 


Three •' 


150 (7 yrs ) 


35 


122 




Practically all 


46 


Albany Albany. 
H. S., N. Y. 


" Four " 






176 






47 


University School Columbus, 
Columbus, Ohio. 


One 












48 


Berwick Berwick, 


Three " 


74 




29 




66% 




Academy, Me. 






' 










The data for the last three years' usually include students now in college 

(41) The Cleveland South Side High School (42) Grinnell and (43) Woodstock Academies sent letters without data. , 
The returns from the schools on men- entering Hvvard vary, from university records. <?. g, when a high school boy 
ttttends a fitting school tor a year and then enters Harvard both schools claim him the university credits but one 



TABliE II 



Summaries of views of 

AfTHORiriES OF SECONDARY 
SCHOOLS SENDING BOYS TO 
HARVARD. 



Their suggestions for improving relVtions 
OF colleges and secondary schools. 



Difficulties in harvard examinations, 
other views thereon. 



Adelphi Academy. . 

Bangor High School ....... 

Galveston Ball High School. . 
Bloomington H. S 

Cleveland Central High School 

Cutler A. U.r Priv. S 

Colorado Spgs. H. S 

Cleveland West High. . 
Cook Acad 

Denver High (No. 1) 

De Lancey. 

Davenport H S. . . . 

Episcopal (Yeates) Acad. . 

(Chicago) Englcwood H S. . 

Groton School. ... 

Goodyear (Misses) School. . . 
Holbrfxik's Milil.-=iry Acad. . . 

Harvard Schofjl. 

Hughes School. 

Hvtchki<« School 

Indianapolis ShortridKO H. S. 
Chicago I^Un, Private. . 

Lake Forest Acad 

La Grange High School 

Morristown School 

Milwaukee West Side High 

Milwaukee Acad. 

Oberlin Acad. . 

Orchard Lake Military Acad 
Northwestern Acad. 
Oneonta State .Vormal. . 
Pittsfield High.. 

Prosso Prep 

Patterson Davenport School. 

Rayen School. 

Pittsburg Shadyside Acad. 

Redlands Union High School 

(Tennessee University) — Baker 

Himel School. 
Cincinnati Woodland High. 
Detroit Central High. 

Asheville (N. Car.) Acad. (Pri 
t vate). . 

University School, Detroit. . 



Albany H.S 

University School of Colum- 
bus. O...... 

Berwick Academy 



and 



Uniform requirements for entrance 
ondary athletics by a college trust. 

Exchange school visits, by authonties of col- 
lege and secondary schools. 

Require teachers to be umversity graduates. 



By a^ssociations, e. .?.. North Central Ass. Colls 
and secondary schools, etc. 



from 



More inquiry by college for suggestions 
secondary schools. 

Colleges should exchange visits and papers with 

secondary schools. 
Admission by certificate. 

More sincerity in living up to standards, college 
gatherings with school men to discuss relations. 

More mutual understanding of each other's con- 
ditions 

Strengthen the middle state. board with 2 school 
and 1 college man. Fewer requirements; 
more teaching, more visits and encourage- 
ments from the colleges. 

Conferences between college and high school 
faculties. 



Present associations of college and secondary 
faculties very good. 

Most colleges make some unreasonable deinands. 

intervisitmg clubs, frequent conferences, formal 
and informal. 

Let colleges accept good work in commercial, 
manual trajnmg and social subjects. 



Frequent visits and suggestions by college 

authorities. 
.\ system of inspection and certificate. 

College visitors, graduate cll'b visitors. 



A reasonable system of accrediting upon cer- 
tincate based on inspection by college. 

Combination of certiticate and examination as 
at Williams. 



Favors the certificate system. 
Visitation, lectures by college men, conferences. 
Visitation by college representatives. 
More liberality in accepting students by cer- 
tificate. 
More uniform entrance requirements. 



More elasticity of requirements, combination of 
examination and certificate 



More liberality in accepting students by cer- 
tificate 



Better understanding by college authorities of 
secondary pupil and his needs. 

Visits from Harvard would increase Harvard 
attendance from the South. 

A carefully supervised and fearlessly adminis 
tered certificate system, together with con- 
ferences. 



No difficulty. 

No difficulty. 

No difficulty (but do not give solid geometry) 
No difficulty; more pupils would go to Harvard 

if less language were required 
No difficulty if pupil begins early enough. 

No unreasonable difficulty. German requirement 
is too severe; xirges separate installment ex- 
aminations. 

No difficulty. 

None for the bright few who undertake it. 
Not for persistent students. 

None except in physics and science work. 

Physics papers are above high school gtade. 
No difficulty; Harvard examinations are a little 

harder than others, but no complaint. 
No, generally. 

No. They require more maturity than others, 
which repels boys. 



No. Except remoteness, and the attractions of 

Chicago, Michigan and nearer schools. 
No difficulty; prefers the old system requiring 

all examinations to be taken in 2 yrs. 
No difficulty. 
Yes; particularly in Latin and Greek. The 

Harvard candidate must often be put in a 

class by himself. 
We find them very exacting, taxing to the ut- 
most, but always within reach of good schools 

and able scholars. 
We meet Harvard requirementSi but only by 

extra work. 
Only because Harvard and Yale will not get 

together on Latin, English, etc.- 80% go to 

Yale. 
No special effort to do so; only the. best can do 

so in 4 years. 
No' difficulty; most of our boys who go enter 

without conditions. Harvard examinations 

require great maturity. 
Ordinarily no difficulty 

Easily met ; but work is shaped more toward 

neighboring institutions. 
We have in tlie past, owng to "inhospitable" 

regulations and complicated definitions of 

requirements. That situation is now much 

improved. 
No ; but reluctance of pupils to go and take short 

examinations as test of four years' work. 
No difficulty except in scientific work. 

Not if boy's plan is formed and known early 
enough. 

No difficulty for boys willing to. work. 

We have few candidates for Harvard. 

No difficulty. __ 

Yes; usually a fifth year or priv-ate tutoring ia 
necessary. 

Plenty of difficulties; but -we have always over- 
come them by bard trial. Examinations are 
fair. 

No; but the Harvard examinations require more 
careful training than others; most of our boys 



,.P^ 



ithout conditions. 



Requirements too numerous.- Welleslev re 
quirement with high standard is far better 
than the more recent requirements of Har 
vard. 



With bright students, none if they plan to enter 
from the first; ^yith others, yes, particularly 
if they do not take Greek. 

Examinations more difficult than Yale, Pnnce- 
ton or any of the 35 colleges for which we fit. 



Only when pupil does not take Greek. 
Yes, in four years; too much is required. 



No difficulty. Suggests that English A be made 
a preliminarv subject. 

Formerlv. yes;' but under new plan shall have 
little difficultv. Examinations are pernicious 
in influence on real cultural work. Indorses 
article in Atlantic, _ Sept., 1894, on "The 
Preparatory School." 

No. The few who enter Harvard do some work 
not required in our course.. 

Onlv that the boys will not stay long enough. 
No.' But vj,'e can send men who will be better 

students if requirements didn't "spread." sO- 

much. 



TABLE in.. 



Summaries pp views of 
authorities of secondary 
schools sknding bovs to 
Harvard 



State of preparation of their pupils at 
entrance on secondary schools-quality 

OF liLEMENTARV EDUCATION. 



Means of improving elementary work and 
securing earlier entrance on secondary 
education 



Adulphi Academy. 

Bantjor Hiyh School 

Galveston Ball High School. 

Bloomington H S . . . 
Cleveland Central High School 
Cutler A. H. Priv. S. . . . 
Colorado Spgs. H. S. . 

Cleveland West High. . 

Cook Acad 

Denver High S. (No 1) 

Dc Lanccy. 

Davenport H S. 
Episcopal (Yeates) .\cad 

{Chicago) Englewood H. S. 
Groton School. 



Goodyear (Mi.sses) School.. 
Holbrook's .Military Acad. 
Harvard Scliool .1. 



Hughes School 
Hotchkiss School. 

Indianapolis Shortridgc H S. 

Chicago Latin. Private 

Lake Forest Acad 

La Grange High School. 
Morristown School. 



Milwaukee West Side High . 

Milwaukee Acad 

Oberlin Acad. 

Orchard Lake Military Acad 

Northwestern Acad 

Oneonta State Normal 

Pittsfield High . . 

Prosso Preparatory 

Patterson Davenport School. 

Rayen School. 



Pittsburg Shadyside Acad . . 

Redlands Union High School 

(Tennessee Uni versi ty ) — B aker 
Himel School 



Vaiiabk; 

Unsatisfactory, especially in English 

Good. 

Good. 

Good; urges more English work in the grades. 

Good. 

Excellent up to 0th grade; thereafter impaired 
by multiplicity of studies. 

Draws from well conducted private elementary 
scho.;ls. 

Good. 

Poor from Kick of system and articulation of 
elementary to secondary schools. Earlier sys 
tematic training greatly needed. 

Generally good. 



Fair. Fewer subjects should be attempted. 
Very uneven. Our pupils come from every 
state in the U S. 



Too many studies pursued; not enough conccn 

tration. 
Inclined to be wooden and mechanical 



Good; but it takes too long for pupils to reach 
secondarv schools. 



Very good. 
Fairly good.) 



Very unsatisfactory; so our courses are for 
years' work. 



•Cincinnati Woodland High . 
Detroit Central High 



Asheville. <N. Car.) Acad. (Pri 
vate) 



■University School, Detroit 
(Private) 

Albany H. S 

Vniversitv School of Colurri- 

bus. 

Berwick Academy, Me 



Generally satisfactory, according to prevailing 
standards. 

Fairly good. Pupils come from all sections of 
country; chieflv from northern states.' No 
uniformity. Those from Michigan and N. Y 
have best preparation. 



Too much "marking time" dulls the bright boy 
before reaching secondary school.. 

Fair. 



Begin H. S. work in 8th grade; reduce arith- 
metic; increase nature work, history, com- 
position; avoid arbitrary inconsiderate 
action. 

Avoid grading by years; more elasticity in 
grades. 

Abridge and condense in arithmetic. Elevate 
requirements as to teachers. 

Better teachers; better pay for teachers. 

Believes closer relations would s;ive one year Yn 
grades. 



Believes requirements too high and too com- 
plex; urges simplification and relieving the 
grades from unprofitable work. 

Does not favor earlier beginning of prep, work 
in this school; our grads enter Harvard one 
year under average age now 

Better teaching of fewer subjects. Begin H. S. 
subjects earlier. 

Urges uniform requirements for admission to 
secondary schools, with Bd. of Inspection. 

Favors segregation of sexes. Boys hopelessly 

in minority, become dissatisfied. 
Thinks senior study begins too late; suspects 

the kindergarten is the cause. 



Begin language and mathematics earlier 



Secondary work should begin 2 yrs. earlier 



We are trying Latin, English and Algebra in 

8th grade. 
So long as present requirements arc maintained, 

age of entrance cannot be much reduced. 
Standards for elementary teachers arc too low 

We receive on examinations at end of 7th grade. 

Need of better classification of schools inlo ele- 
mentary a.nd secondary, with different handling 
for each. 

Confine grade work to essentials, more training 
in English. 

Am not anxious to have pupils enter secondary 

schools earlier, but better trained. 
Better teachers; better pay for teachers; less 

politics in public schools. 
H. S. work should begin in 8th grade. 
H. S. work should not be hurried or forced. 
Doubts the. desirability of earlier entrance; 

health first. 
Not advisable to seek earlier entrance. 
Better teachers; fewer studies; more work on 

essentials. 
For real ■ preparatory work maturity an irn- 

portant factor; usually should not begin 

before 14. Earlv decision of course and plan 

necessary to early entrance to college. 
Employment of educators instead of inefficient 

teachers in public schools. 
Believe earlier beginning of secondary work 

practicable. 

More training in and emphasis on English and 
expression are needed. 

Begin secondary mathematics and languages 
in 7th year of elementary school. 

More attention to fundamental studies; nattije 
studies are poorly taught. Elevation of 

. standards for primary teachers, reqvuremeht 
of refinement and culture and fitness for 
teaching, as well as intellectual ability. 

We begin Latin in the 7th grade and Algebra 
in 8th grade with good results. Much time 
is wasted in grammar schools. 

Better teachers needed. 



Preparation about 12 J% below the Massachu 
setts average. Quality of elementary work 
not good except where much help given out- 
sfde school. 



Better enforcement of j^resent laws and reqtiire- 
ments. New requirements with administra- 
tion rejnove^ from politics. 



TABLE IV3 



Summaries of views op 
authorities op secondary 


<1. How FAR ACCREDITED. 




a. How PAR INSPECT«D STf UNiV^&SITlES. 


schools sending boys to 
Harvard. 


6. Views on the certificate system. 




b. Is INSPECTIOM WELCOMED? 


Adelphj Academy 


3. 


Wherever desired. 




a. By N. Y. Regents. 




b. 


Opposed to certificate system. 




b. All inspection is welcomed. 


Bangor High School 

Galveston Ball High School. . . 


a. 


By all wliich admit on certihcate. 




a. Not at all. 


a. 


Generally; Univ. Tex., Chicago., Cornell. 


etc. 


a. By Texas and Tulane. 

b. Yes. 

a. By Univ. of 111.. Chi., Mich., frequently. 

a. By Univs. of Ohio, Chi., Mich, ct at. 


Bloomington H. S 


a. 


Generally. 




Qeveland Central High School 


a. 


Generally. 












b. Yes. 


Cutler A. H. Priv. S. . . 


a. 


Is qualified, but makes little use Of 


cer- 


a. Bv N. V. Regents. 

b. Welcomes thorough inspection. 

a. By those named in preceding co'umn at 






titicates. 




Colorado Spgs. H. S. . . 


a. 


By .about 20, Mich.. Wis., Ihi.. Cor 


nell. 






Colorado, etc 




frequent intervals. 


Cleveland West High 








a. Very generally and frequently. 

a. By^Cornell rt ai.. in N Y. 

b Yes. 

a. Occasionally, Calif. Stanford. Chi.. Wis, 


Cook Acad. 


a. 


Generally. 




Denver High (No. 1>. 


a. 


Generally. 






b. 


Favors admission by ccnilicaic 




6 Yes. 


De Lancey. . . . 


J. 


Only by Cornell. Williams. L.hr^h. 




■1. Only most formally, and that not to seVonr 




6. 


Opposed to certificate system. 




work but to secure students. 
b. Heartily welcomed. 


Davenport H. S. 


a. 


Generally. 




a. Regularly every two years by some. less 
frequently by the others. 


Episcopal (Ycates) Acad. . 


a. 


Generally. 




1. \'o real inspection. 

b. Should be glad of college inspection. 


(Chicago) Englewood H. S. . . . 
Groton School. . 


a. 


(Jenerally. 




a. .Amiually by slate university inspector. 








a. None. 










b. Welcomed at any time. 


Goodyear (.Misses) School.. 


J- 


By.Corncll. Syraciibo. Wc-Ueslcy and Smi 


h. 


a. Seldom. 

b Welcomed. 

a. No re'.;ular mspection. 


Holbrook's Military Acad. . 


a. 


Gcncr.V.Iy 












b. WelcJmed. 


Harvard School. . . 


a. 


By ten leading sclio.;!^. 




a. Once m 2 years by Michigan and Wiscon.sin. 


Hughes School . 


a. 


Generally. 




a. By .Mich.. Ohio and the vusitor of the Xorth 
Ccntr.al Association. 


Hotchkiss School 


b 


We do not give certificates. 




a. .N^.t at all. 

b. Competent inspection and criticism wel- 
comed. 

o. By a few occasionally. 

b. Yis. 

a. Occasional. 


Indianapolis Sliortridge H. S. . 


a. 


Generally 




Chicago I-r:lin Private. 


^, 


Our certificalos have not been refused; 


but 






nearly all our boys enter uhcre certificates 


b. /Mways welcomed. 






are not laUeii 






Lake Forest Acad. 


a. 


By all the middle and \v<.-stern mstitulion. 


■i. Very little. (Is part of Lake Forest Univ.) 






and' sume eastern. 




b. Inspection is welcomed 


La Gran?c High S<:hoyl 


a. 


Generally. 




a. Every year by several mspeclors. from each 




b 


Favors \oiiilicate system. 




lari,'er institution every 3 years. 
b. AKvays welcome. 


Morristown School 


J 


Not iny. i)U|.iIs go to iion-ccriiticalo 
!c*^jes. 


col 


a. Practically none. 

b Inspection ok Seco.sdary Schools ts 

SoRKLY Needed for .Mttual Benefit o* 

?rt(oot. AND College. 


Milwaukee West Side Hi-h 


a. 


Generally. 




?. Regularly each year by representatives of 




b. 


Favors reasonable ccrtitJcate sy^slcm. 




nearer institutions. 
b. We welcoiTie inspection. 


Milwaukee Acad. • 


a. 


Generally. 




a. Regularly by Wisconsin. 




b. 


Favors certificate system in combination 


b. Yes, 






with examinations. 






Obcrlin Acad. . . 


J 


Generally, mecnbcr of North Central .Assn 


a. By the Ohio state visitor. .. 










b. Any such inspection would be welcomed. 


Orchard Lake Military Acad. . 


1. 


Generally. 




a. By Michigan and Wisconsin. 




b. 


Favcrs certificate system. 




b. College inspection welcomed. 
a. Is part of N. W- Univ. 


Northwestern Acad. 


a 


Generally. 












b. Welcomed 


Oneonta State Normal 


a 


By r2.to 15 institutions. 




a. None. 

b. Welcomed. 


PittsfieldHigh... 


a 


In seven institutions outside X'ew England 


a. Not at all; 






In Ne.v England. Ccrtiiicatc Board appli- 


b. Welcomed. 






c.ition pending. 








b. 


Favors certiacate system. 






Prosso Prep 


a 


Generally. 




a. By visitors of state univeisities anfl t* 
"Williams College. 
















b. We welcome inspection. 


■pattei ;K)n Davenport School . . 


b. 


We prefer e.xaminatiom 




a. None. 

b. Welcomed. 

1. Not in last few years. 

b. Always glad to. be inspected. 


Raycn School 




Generally. This year in 38 colleges 
universities. 


an 










h. 


Favors combinatioa of certificate 
examinations. 


wit 


h ^ 


Pittsburg Shadyside Acad. . . 


a. 


By 22 institutions. 




a. By representatives of the schools honoring 
our certificates. 


Redlands Union High School 


a. 


Generally. 




7. Annually by Univ. of Ccdif. visitors. 




b. 


Favors certificate system. 




b. Most welcome. 


(Tennessee University) — Baker 










Himel School 


a. 


By southern universities. 




s. Very little. 


Cincinnati Woodland High. . . 








b. Inspection by teachers welcomed. 


Detroit CentralHigh 


■J. 


Generally. 




o. By Univ. of Mich, every three years.! 
b. From any college js welcome. 


Asheville. (.V. Car.) Acad. (Pri- 










vate). . . 


a. 


By Mich., Cornell, Williams, Ohio State and 


a. Bv representatives of different colleges; but 






all to which we have applied. 




not in the way that Univ. of Mich. insBCctt 
Mich, schools. ' 
b. Glad to have representative of The Cotl^GB 
visit us. 


I'niversity School (Private) 










Detroit., 


a. 


Is on accredited list of N'orth Central Asso- 


a. Regularly by Mich.Univ.. by Univ.of Chi- 






ciation, also accredited by Williams, Amherst 


caco and Case School of Applie(J 'Science 






Brown, Trinity, Cornell,, etc. 




.(Western Resen-e Univ.). 




b. 


Favors carefully supervised and fearlessly 


h. Always welcomed. 






administered certificate svslem. 






Albany H.S 




By all in the eastern mi'ddle states, tha 
mit on certificate 


ad- 


a. (Is under shadow of N, Y. Regents.) 

b. They (others) would be welcome but they 
















"come not." 


University School, Columbus 










O 


a. 


Amherst. Williams, Dartmouth. Western 


a. Last visit 1900 (Is under shadow of Ohio 






Reserve, Ohio State, Ohio Wesleyan,MarielU. 


State University). 






Wooster (by t Ohio and 3 New Eng 


and 


b. Inspection welcomed.. 






institutions). 




. 


Benvick Academy, Me 


f- 


By all the New England Colleges. 


save 


o. ' 'Some representatives of N. Eng. College 






Harvard. Yale and Institute of Technology. 


Entrance Certificate Board visit us every year 










nnd one or more from Maine colleces. 



APPENDIX II. 



Selected List of Akticles Dealing with the Exam- 
ination System and the Inspection and Certificate 
System of Admission to College. 



il. Admission to College by Certificate. 

j 

pi 



a. Cyrus Northrop, President, University of 
Minn. 
1 b. Merrill E. Gates, President, Amherst College, 

c. James H. Canfield, Chancellor, University of 
u Nebraska. 

La d. 0. M. Fernald, Williams College. 

M^„ e, Martin Kellogg, University of California. 

/. John Tetlow, Girls' Latin School, Boston. 
Miw. — Educational Review, February- June, '93. 

Mihv. 

'. An Argument for the Certificate Plan. 

Oberli ^ 

^^^^[' esident Northrop says : 

oneon ^ ^ To sum up thc whole matter in few words: Our 
pittsfie experience has taught us that the advantages of this 
^ system are : 

1. It raises the grade of the preparatory schools. 

2. It gives us students better prepared for uni- 
versity work. 

3. It does away with an immense amount of work 
and worry incident to examinations. 

4. It gives us better results from the student 
when he is once in the university. 

It has no drawbacks at all commensurate with its 
advantages. It has been seldom that we have had 
cause to regret our action in any particular case, 
and it is safe to say that not a member of the Fac- 
ulty of this University would go back to the old 
method of examination for all cases.'* 



Ic. James H. Canfield (then Chancellor of the Uni- 
versity of Nebraska ; afterwards president of Ohio State 
University, and now Librarian at Columbia) gives a sum- 
mary of twelve reasons in favor of the certificate plan, 
as follows: 

1. In the West, at least, very few students pre- 
sent themselves for examination at commencement. 
They cannot atford two trips to the university. 

2. Therefore, in the West, at least, most students 
come to the September examinations rusty, by three 
months vacation, and conscious of this to a point 
of loss of assurance and of great embarrassment. 

3. In the West, at least, it is still quite impossi- 
ble to hold all entrance examinations on a given 
day. Students cannot always afford to drop work 
in the middle of the month, or come up early in the 
fall. 

4. Everywhere there is a tendency to make some 
entrance examinations rather light, and to trust 
much to personal impressions of a student and of 
his work. 

5. An examination conducted by a stranger to the 
student and his habit of thought and to the meth- 
ods of his instruction — and conducted at a time of 
peculiar embarrassment to the person examined — 
cannot, in the nature of things, secure just or ade- 
quate results. 

6. Such an examination tells almost nothing of 
power — which is far more important than mere in- 
formation. 

7. Admission by certificate brings all parts of the 
school system together in a helpful and stimulating 
way. 

8. It is a recognition which ought to be rendered 
by the university to workers in other parts of the 
State system. 

9. Students admitted by certificate have secured 
quite as good average standing as those coming in 
by examination. If there is any difference it is in 
favor of the former. 

10. Everything connected with regular school 



3 

work and usual examinations helps to fix a just and 
accurate estimate of the success, power and knowl- 
edge of a student ; while nearly every condition of the 
university entrance examinations is against such an 
estimate. 

11. The standard of an institution is not deter- 
mined so much by its criticism of work done else- 
where (examinations) as by its own work. 

12. The doors of any institution may safely swing 
inward quite easily; but it ought to take hard work 
to make them swing outward {i. e., suggests that ex- 
aminations ought to be stricter for graduation than 
for admission). 

1 d. Williams has pursued the system since 1876. 

Prof. 0. M. Fernald says : 

^^It should be remembered that * * * it does 
not abrogate examinations for admission. It sim- 
ply shifts the place from the college to the schooJ. 
It is upon the results of examinations and of other 
such processes that certificates are based. And it 
hardly needs argument to show that an intelligent 
and discriminating teacher, after several years of 
observation and scrutiny of a class in examination 
and recitation, has wider and better data on which 
to base a judgment of the boys' fitness for college 
than can be secured from the necessarily hurried 
entrance examinations at the college itself.'' 

1 e. The Certificate system in use in University of 
California since 1884. Article by Prof. Martin Kellogg, 
5 Ed., Kev. 384. 

1 f. By Professor John Tetlow. An argument in fa- 
vor of the use of the two systems (the certificate system 
and the examinations system) together ; holding that each 
is benefited by the presence of the other. 

2. College Admission Eequirements. 

2 a. Charles H. Keyes, Supervisor of Schools, 
Hartford, Conn. 

Ed. Kev. Jan., 1900, Vol. 19, pp. 59-67. 
And see Pres't Butler's article cited below. 



2 h. A. Lawrence Lowell. 

Ed. Kev., 1896 (May), Vol. 1, pp. 468-72. 
2 c. J. IL Kirkland. 

Sch. Eev., 7 Sept., 1899, pp. 388-408. 
2 d. A. F. Nightingale. 

N. E. A., 1897, pp. 647-652. 

2a. A synopsis and discussion of the report (report 
of Committee on College Entrance Eequirements, July, 
1899, published by the National Educational Association, 
188 pp.), by Prof. Chas. Keyes, urging the colleges to 
restate their requirements in the terms of the national 
norms, or to announce that the courses recommended by 
the Committee of the N. E. A. on college entrance re- 
quirements will be accepted as alternatives. 

2 h. A plea for elementary instruction in the colleges 

and for the beginning of preparatory work earlier, by 

Prof. A. Lawrence Lowell. 

^^A plea for the articulation of the upper and 
lower parts of the educational system,'' by N. S. 
Shaler. 

May, '93; 11 Ed. Rev. 472. 

^*I personally hope it may extend from shop work 
to Greek." 

The aim is to take into account in our entrance re- 
quirements all the work of the secondary schools. 

3. College Entrance Requirements in History. Albert 

Bushnell Hart, Ed. Rev. Dec, 1895, 10 pp., 417-429. 

A discussion of the value of history as a study for 
secondary schools and the need of increased teaching 
force and facilities in the secondary schools to provide 
for the enlarged curriculum. 



I 



Prof. Hart wrote : 

^^In any event, the secondary schools are awaro 
that they are expected to solve all the educational 
problems; all hands call upon them to accomplish 
more; the kindergartens on the gun deck, the gram- 
mar schools on the main deck, the colleges on the 
quarter deck, the technical schools in the chains, 
the graduate schools in the topgallant yards — all 
look to the secondary teachers as the able seamen 
of educational reform.*^ 

4. Conclusions as to uniform college entrance require- 
ments, by The Columbia Conference of 1896. 

11 Ed. Eev., 494-501. 

A report (May, 1896) giving a list of such uniform re- 
quirements recommended by the conference. 

5. Conflicting views regarding Entrance Examinations. 

5 a. By President A. T. Hadley, 8 Sch. Rev., p. 585. 

*'If entrance examinations are to be regarded as 
a test of ability to go on with the work of the col- 
lege, our present methods of hand,ing them can only 
be defended on this theory. Yv^e are making a rough 
application of the doctrine of chance.'' 

President Hadley urges a reform in the system by 
which examinations will test not the extent of previous 
study, but the power for future work, 

5 h. Report on Admission to College on certificate 
and by examination. Charles C. Ramsey, Sch. Rev. 8, 
pp. 593-604. 

The last two numbers arc among the most valu- 
able in the list. They are taken from the report of the 
15th annual meeting of the New England Association 
of Colleges and Preparatory Schools held at Hunting- 
ton Hall, Mass. Inst, of Tech., Boston, October 12, 1900. 



6 

President Hadley presented the leading paper. Princi- 
pal Eamsey, who frankly opposed the certificate system, 
collated statistics from twenty-nine secondary schools, 
seventeen colleges, and from the Faculty of a repre- 
sentative High School and a representative College. 
President Eliot presided, and took an important part in 
the discussion, summarized in the Eeport, pp. 26-27, 
supra. 

The papers of President Hadley and Principal Ramsey, 
with the discussions, occupy twenty-eight pages of the 
School Eeview for December, 1900 (Vol. 8, pp. 583-611). 

6. The Equalization of the requirements for admis- 
sion into the different courses leading to the First 
Collegiate degree. 

F. W. Moore, in Sch. Eev., 10 March, 1902, pp. 
217-223, advocates the treatment of candidates for 
B. S. on equal terms with candidates for B. A. See 
Eesolution No. 2 in Los Angeles Eeport, to same 
effect. 

7. The Harvard Eeform in Entrance Eequirements. 

Prof. Albert B. Hart, discussing the then new scheme 

adopted in May, 1899, said (Ed. Eev., 18 Oct., 1899, pp. 

263-280): 

^'During the last thirty years (1868-1898) there 
appear to have been but twelve years in which some 
change was not made, either in the definition of indi- 
vidual subjects or in the combinations of subjects. 
In 1872 alternatives were first allowed; in 1874 En- 
glish became an admission subject; then division 
of the examination into preliminary and final was 
permitted and sight translation appeared; in 1875 
modern languages came in; from 1876 elementary 
science. A great step was taken in 1878, when a 
system of so-called advance subjects was introduced, 
through which the college required a choice out of a 



list of subjects, wMcli would be extensions of some 
of the elementary required studies. Thus up to 
1887, Harvard steadily advanced in the number of 
subjects required, in the thoroughness of prepara- 
tion in each; and in a method of combination of 
elementary subjects with elective advanced sub- 
jects. In 1887 came the first pitched battle between 
the old-fashioned classical training and the advo- 
cates of newer branches. * * * (With reference 
to the address of that year by Charles Francis 
Adams on 'The College Fetish.') * * * j^ the 
long run, therefore, the question whether an ill- 
prepared boy will get into Harvard College or fail 
depends upon a complexity of influences, the most 
important of which is the committee on entrance 
examinations. The masters and teachers in the 
great fitting schools have learned the standard of 
that committee, which is reasonably steady, and can 
pretty closely predict whether a hoy is or is not 
likely to get safely through the ordeal.'^ 

Professor Hart concludes, p. 229, that 

''after weary and even impatient months of discus- 
sion the question of entrance requirements at Har- 
vard is settled for probably ten years to come. ' ' 

"In a previous article upon this subject it was 
suggested that the college hoped through its decision 
to be helpful to education throughout the community. 
This remark brought down the criticism of an alum- 
nus upon Harvard teachers who spend time in do- 
ing something else than teaching students of Har- 
vard College." Eeply: Harvard's work is unsel- 
fish. 

Quotes Congregational clergyman concerning the 
endowment of Chicago University, "You can't 
spend seven millions on Baptists only." 

8. Eeform of College Entrance Eequirements. By 

Wilson Farrand. 

In inaugural address — of the Schoolmasters' Associa- 
tion of New York and vicinity, October 12, 1895. 10 Ed. 
Rev., 430-444. 



8 

Criticises requirements and examinations alike for 
lack of uniformity. 

Idiosyncracy of Examiners; examinations as mediums 
for illustrating tlie examiners ' theories of education ; the 
opportunities afforded by the examination system for the 
evils of coaching system; examinations as traps for the 
unwary. 

'^ These, then, are the charges that we have to 
bring against the present requirements for admis- 
sion to our colleges — first, the lack of uniformity; 
second, the varying standard of enforcement ; third, 
the uncertainty and inaccuracy of administration; 
fourth, the specific and detailed character of many 
of the examinations.'' 

Examinations as a lottery ; the attempting of too much 
examination in too brief a period. 

Professor Farrand recommendea : 

1. The requirement of certificates of the amount and 
character of work done. 

2. The use of general examinations. 

3. The decision as to admission should be based on 
both examination and certificate. 

4. Improvement in methods, or administration of ex- 
aminations. 

5 : Uniformity of entrance requirements. 

9. Eesume and Critique of the college entrance require- 
ments in Natural Science. C. S. Palmer in Sch. Rev., 
June, 1896, Vol. 4, pp. 452-460. 

10. Should colleges lower their standards of admission! 
Wm. T. Harris, in Ed. 17 June, 1897, pp. 579-585. 

11. Tabular statements of entrance requirements to rep- 
resentative colleges and universities of the United 



9 

States. Chase and C. H. Thnrber, in Seh. Eev., June, 
1896, Vol. 4, pp. 341-405. 

12. Uniform college admission requirements with a 
joint board of examiners. By Nicholas Murray But- 
ler (Ed. Eev., Jan., 1900, Vol. 19, pp. 68-74), in an 
address before the Association of Colleges and Prep- 
aratory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, 
at Trenton, N. J., Dec. 1, '99. 

Holds that when co-operation with other colleges 
is demonstrably in the public interest, such co-operation 
is a duty. 

Professor Butler said: 

^^I have not concealed from this association in 
years past my view that there should not be any 
problem of college entrance at all and that ^/le 
formal examination for admission to college is a sur- 
vival which should he chiefly of historic interest/^ 
* * * * ''There is need not alone of uniform re- 
quirements for college admission, but of uniform ad- 
ministration of those requirements. * * * This 
proposal for a uniform series of college entrance 
requirements administered by a joint board of exam- 
iners is not new. It was made to the Association of 
Colleges in New England in November, 1894, by 
President Eliot, and was repeated by him before the 
New York Schoolmasters' Association on Februarv 
8,1896." 

On December 22, 1893, President Butler had introduced 
a resolution at a meeting of the Columbia College Fac- 
ulty looking to the establishment of a College Admission 
Examining Board, * * * 

''the certificate of such Board to be accepted for 
what it covers by any college or scientific school 
represented; such examinations to displace as soon 
as practicable those now held by the several insti- 
tutions separately. 



10 

Such co-operation between the colleges would 
help them greatly. It would drag them out of their 
isolation and help to overcome their provincialism. 
It would increase the college attendance.'' 

13. Uniform Eequirements for College Admission. H. A. 
Fischer (of Wheaton College), N. E. A., 1890, pp. 
705-707. 

14. Uniform Standards in College Preparation. 9 Edu- 
cational Review, 148-158 (1895). 

A short symposium of the views of college presidents 
and others, collected by William H. Butts. 

Proceedings and addresses of the Thirty-eighth An- 
nual Meeting of the National Educational Association 
held at Los Angeles, California, July 11-14, 1899, pub- 
lished by the Association (printed by the University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago), pp. 1-1258: Reports on Col- 
lege Entrance Requirements, pp. 625-817, signed by the 
chairman and original committee in which Harvard was 
represented by Paul H. Hanus, Professor of the Sci- 
ence and Art of Education at Harvard, and among the 
committee of twelve, by Prof. Clement L. Smith, of 
Latin. Among the fourteen special resolutions in that 
report we may call attention to Nos. 7 and 12 as follows : 

VII. Resolved, That the colleges will aid the second- 
ary schools by allowing credit toward a degree for work 
done in secondary schools, beyond the amount required 
for entrance, when equal in amount and thoroughness 
to work done in the same subjects in college. 

XII. Resolved, That we recommend that any piece 
of work comprehended within the studies included in 
this report that has covered at least one pear of four pe- 
riods a week in a well equipped secondary school, under 



I 



11 

competent instruction, should be considered worthy to 
count toward admission to college. 

15. Eeport of United States Commissioner of Education 
for 1902, Vol. 1, Chap. 12. 

'' Admission to College on certificate of secondary 
schools" contains a general statement of the ques- 
tions : 

The by-laws of the New England College Entrance 
Certificate Board: 

Historic survey of the accrediting systems of dif- 
ferent State universities : 

A list of institutions admitting students on certi- 
ficate; and the address by Prof. A. S. Whitney of 
the University of Michigan, delivered in 1902, at 
the annual meeting of the Association of Colleges 
and preparatory schools of the Middle States and 
Maryland, at Baltimore, and printed in the School 
Eeview for February, 1903 (summarized in report, 
pp. 14-20, supra). 

16. College Examinations, by Prof. N. S. Shaler. 68 
Atlantic Monthly, 95-102. 

A clear statement of the evils of the examination sys- 
tem with valuable suggestions for improvement. The 
article is devoted rather to examinations within the col- 
lege than to examinations for admission to college. In 
particular, Professor Shaler urges the use of a second- 
ary system of instruction embracing the work of tutors 
and auxiliary teachers who will conduct parallel and 
supplementary teaching; the use of written exercises 
which ^^keep the student continually in face of the prob- 
lem with which he is dealing," including inspection of 
note books and the frequent writing of theses ; the aboli- 
tion of the proctored examination, and the requirement 
that the pupils who have taken a written examination 
subsequently re-write their papers as a work of review, 
putting them into the best practicable form. 



12 

17. The Dangers of Examinations, by W. B. Jacobs, 
Sch. Eev., Nov., 1896, Vol. 4, pp. 675-681. 

18. Dangers of Examinations, by Cbas. F. Wheelock, 
School Review, Vol 5, pp. 43, Jan., 1897. 

A commentary on No. 2, with extracts from the report 

of President Schnrman of Cornell for 1896. 

**The students who have entered Cornell Uni- 
versity during the past six years are divided into 
three groups as follows: 

1. Those who were examined for admission. 

2. Those who entered on certificates other than 
regents' diplomas. 

3. Those who entered on regents' diplomas. 

Of the first class 18.53 per cent, were found defi- 
cient in ability to do the required work in the uni- 
versity and were dropped. Of the second group 
11.14 were dropped, and of the third group 6.46 per 
cent. ' ' 

19. Educational Value of Examinations, by Prof. James 
Seth, of Cornell University. Ed. Rev., Sept., 1896, 
Vol. 12, pp. 133-37. 

A good word for the examination system. 

20. Examinations, by Wm. B. Harlow. Education VIII, 
Jan., '88, pp. 321-324. 

21. Examinations, by Henry Lincoln Clapp, Master of 
George Putnam School, Boston. Ed., Vol. 21, pp. 

387-397, Mch., '01. 

A humorous defense of examinations and belittle- 
ment of their defects. 

22. Examinations, by Frederich Paulsen, of the Uni- 
versity of Berlin. Ed. Rev., Sept., 1898, Vol. 16, pp. 
166-176. 

A clear statement of the special evils of State exam- 
inations. 



13 

23. Examinations — an iVpology, by Angle C. Chapin. 
Ed. Rev., Dec, 1900, Vol. 20, pp. 519-521. 

24. Examinations and Promotions, by Emerson E. 
White, State Superintendent for Ohio. Education 

VIII, April, '88, pp. 517-522. 

25. Examinations in Colleges and Schools, by Barr 
Ferree. Ed., Vol. 10, pp. 1-10, Sept., 1889. 

A strong statement of the evils of the examination sys- 
tem. 

26. The Influence of Examinations, by Edgar H. Nich- 
ols, of the Browne & Nichols School, Cambridge, Mass. 
Ed. Rev., May, 1900, Vol. 19, pp. 443-459. 

'^I have no desire to abolish examinations, but I 
have a strong desire to see them relegated to their 
proper place in our educational system.'' * * * 
^^ Under our present system an importance is at- 
tached to examinations that is out of all proportion 
to their value, so that their influence for good is 
minimized and their influence for evil is unduly mag- 
nified. If the colleges would establish as a funda- 
mental principle that the quality of the previous 
work and the method of preparation, rather than 
the mere passing of examinations, are the decisive 
factors in determining admission, we teachers in the 
secondary schools would be left free to look at the 
college examinations as naturally and rationally as 
we do those set by ourselves; and we should be 
greatly aided in our efforts to make the college exam- 
inations have the elevating influence upon school 
work that they are designed to have and should have. 
But it is useless for us to try to make the older pu- 
pils believe that the passing of an examination is 
of value to them — not as the end and aim of their 
work — but merely as an indication of the charac- 
ter of their previous work, when the colleges pro- 
claim a different standard. 

^^It is an artificial value assigned to the mere pass- 



14 

ing of examinations that makes them a terror to the 
conscientious, sensitive student, and an object of 
well-deserved contempt to the lazy, heedless student 
who trusts to what he calls his luck, and who not in- 
frequently receives credit that he knows is not due. 
* * * It is just here that the colleges exert such a 
baneful influence upon secondary education. They 
not only set this false standard of success to pupils 
who apply for admission to their doors from second- 
ary schools, but they maintain the same standard 
among themselves. * * * President Eliot in his 
annual report recently published (1900) makes the 
most welcome announcement that the long struggle 
to give new and intelligent rating to the old subjects 
required for admission to Harvard and to secure 
recognition of the value of certain new subjects has 
been won; and says that the 'Faculty of Arts and 
Sciences looks forward with pleasure to a long pe- 
riod of repose so far as this difficult subject is con- 
cerned.' * * * -g-Q-j^ however well pleased the 
Faculty may be with the result of its efforts I do 
not think that we teachers ought to think of repose 
until the Faculty has done som^ething to assure a 
fair test of the quality as well as of the quantity of 
the preparation ; something to help us in our own pe- 
culiar problem of keeping before the pupils a high 
standard of work that shall make thoroughness 
rather than the passing of examinations the goal of 
their efforts.'' * * * 

''In no case either in the promotion from one class 
to another in the same institution, or in the promo- 
tion from one institution to another, should the re- 
sult of a single set of examinations be the sole factor 
considered ; that as a principle of almost equal impor- 
tance, teachers in judging pupils for examination 
should have the privilege, or better, the duty, of 
sending with their list of candidates a grading that 
shall truthfully report their standing in the school 
work in the subjects presented, accompanied by such 
brief comments on the individuals as would be of 
value to an examiner. For the sake of simplicity 
these facts and comments in the cases of candidates 



15 

for Harvard could be sent in by each school on one 
sheet similar to that now (1900) sent to us by the 
colleges with the results of the examinations; this 
sheet could take the place of the present compli- 
cated certificates for each individual; one for pre- 
liminary examination, another for honorable dis- 
missal, and another for postponing candidates, and 
still another containing opinions and advice as to in- 
dividual character. These sheets should be con- 
sulted before credits, conditions or doubtful pass 
marks are assigned ; and if found to be in general har- 
mony with the results of the examinations, should 
have the balance of power in deciding particular 
questions of doubf 

27. E. H. Quick on Examinations, by Hon. Henry 
Sabin. Education, Dec, 1900, Vol. 21, pp. 210-216. 

28. School Examinations, by Mary A. Leonard. Ed., 
Vol. 21, pp. 282-287, Jan., '01. 

29. School Examinations, by William W. Hyde. Forum, 
Vol. 7, pp. 305-313, May, 1889. 

SO. Should Examinations be Abolished! By Geo. M. 
Steele of Auburndale, Mass. Education, Vol. 14, pp. 
542-545, May, '94. 

An entertaining discussion holding that public senti- 
ment swings like a pendulum and in swinging away from 
examinations has swung too far — and concluding: 

^^It is probable that the ultimate test of acquaint- 
ance with a subject should be a combination of the 
results of the daily record and the final examination, 
some moderate fraction of the latter — from one-fifth 
to one-third, varying perhaps, according to circum- 
stances — to four-fifths to two-thirds of the former.'' 

31. The Use and Control of Examinations, by Arthur T. 
Hadley, N. E. A., 1901, pp. 240-250. Ed. Rev., Vol. 
21, pp. 286-300, Mch., 1900. 



16 

An address delivered before the Department of Super- 
intendence of the N. E. A. — at Chicago, February 27, 
1901. 

A frank recognition of the evils of the examination 
system ; a brief consideration of the objections to the eer~ 
tificate system, and a suggestion of a combination of the 
two with other aids. He divides the studies into three 
classes. 

(1) Subjects which are required because the stu- 
dent must know them in order to have the power to 
go on with his subsequent studies (e. g., Mathemat- 
ics) : College Examinations insisted on. He says : 

^^The system of accepting certified note books to 
supplement and correct the results of examina- 
tions is essentially a compromise. It has at once 
the merits and defects which are incident to a com- 
promise system. It is, I believe, used with good 
effect at Harvard in some of the subjects which 
are required in the entrance examinations. But 
the arguments which can be urged in its behalf 
can for the most part be urged even more strongly 
in favor of a certificate system as a whole. ' ' 

(2) Those required because the college authori- 
ties believe them to be desirable means of attaining 
such power (e.g.;, required work in Literature) : Rec- 
ommends examinations. Wliether certificates should 
be accepted hy common hoard; — decision reserved. 

(3) Those required because the men in the sec- 
ondary schools desire them and ask the moral sup- 
port of the colleges in promoting their study {e. 
g., History) : 

'^In the third group of studies the certificate 
system could be used from the outset.'' 

President Hadley concluded by urging a reform of sec- 
ondary education by ''the separation of our classes, 
both in the grammar schools and in the high schools, 
into groups (of pupils) that are about to finish their 
school days, and groups that are preparing to advance 
further. ' ' 



NEW METHODS OF ADMISSION TO HARVARD.* 

During the academic year now drawing to a close, the Faculty of Arts 
and Sciences have made some notable changes in regard to the admission 
of students. What those changes are, and what they mean, it is the 
purpose of this article to set forth, that Harvard graduates, now, per- 
haps, out of touch with the University, may know that Harvard is still 
working to bring out of the chaotic conditions of school and college work 
a simple order that makes for the greatest freedom of opportunity for 
individuals. Ever since the beginning of the 19th century, Harvard has 
led the way in regard to admission requirements, changing them from 
time to time with a twofold object in view — (1) to make them corre- 
spond to the increasing variety and thoroughness of instruction given in 
the schools on which the College rests, and (2) to bring the advantages of 
a college education within the reach of more and more young men whom 
previous admission requirements, based on at least a preponderance of 
classical studies, excluded. In 1871, 1878, 1887, and 1898, the admis- 
sion requirements were changed in order to adjust them better to school 
work, and now again, in i906, the Faculty, still trying to secure methods 
of regulating admission which shall give the greatest amount of freedom 
of opportunity to individuals as to choice of studies, together with high 
standards in the studies themselves, have made changes intended to secure 

(1) a more just and equable administration of regulations for admission, 

(2) a wider extension of the benefits of the University, and (3) better 
methods of testing fitness for admission, which not only shall be fairer as 
tests, but also shall encourage better scholarship in the work done in 
preparation for college. 

At the beginning of the year, the attention of the Faculty was called 
to the fact that the methods in use for administering the admission of 
students were ill-adjusted to new conditions created by the admission 
requirements of 1898, and by the increase in the number of students 
applying for admission to advanced standing and as Special Students. 
Insensibly, with the increasing complexity of college business, a condition 

* Reprinted from the Harvard Graduates' Magazine for June, 1906. 



2 New Methods of Admission to Harvard 

of things had grown up which needed readjustment. Owing to the fact that 
the College must depend mainly, for administrative work, on committees 
made up of men whose business is teaching special subjects, and who take 
as extra burdens administrative work, reform in such matters as methods 
of admission has always been slow. There is usually no one charged 
with the conduct of such matters who has sufficient time, or the right sort 
of training and opportunities, to study the needs of the various situations 
that arise. It is now generally recognized that an elderly clergyman, 
with the ability to teach Hebrew, may not be the best kind of person to 
be president of a college ; but the minor administrative offices, in most 
colleges, are filled by weary teachers, whose interests are elsewhere. At 
Harvard, it was not readily perceived where reforms were needed in 
methods of admission, because such matters were in charge of no less 
than five committees, who acted independently of each other. There 
was one committee to admit Freshmen by examination to Harvard Col- 
lege, another committee to admit students from other colleges, another 
to admit Special Students, and there were two other committees to admit 
different classifications of students to registration in the Scientific 
School. 

The disadvantages of this arrangement arose from the fact that all 
these committees admitted students to the same courses of instruction. 
Had they represented departments of the University as distinct from 
each other as the Law School and the Medical School, no difficulties prob- 
ably would have arisen ; but whether a man applied for admission as a 
Freshman in Harvard College, or a First Year student in the Scientific 
School, or as a Special Student in either group, he might be asking for 
admission to the same courses of instruction, taught by the same teachers. 
These five committees practically admitted students to one and the same 
instruction. So long as the great majority of students were admitted by 
the committee which had charge of examinations for admission to the 
Freshman Class in Harvard College, the arrangement worked fairly well ; 
but with the growth in the number of men admitted by the other com- 
mittees it became more and more apparent that the actions of the differ- 
ent committees were inconsistent with each other, and that their rulings 
in cases practically identical were various and conflicting. It was inevit- 
able that five different committees, working separately, should have 
different theories about admission, and that the administration of admis- 
sion as a whole should not be equable. 

As soon as the Faculty realized clearly that their machinery for ad- 
mission was out of date, they sought a remedy in the abolition of the 
five committees, and the substitution for them of one committee, charged 
with the business of admitting all undergraduates and Special Students. 



New Methods of Admission to Harvard 3 

Hereafter, then, any student not a graduate of another college, who seeks 
admission to Harvard, must satisfy this one committee that he is qualified 
by his previous studies to enter the University. One result of the former 
arrangement had been various standards of admission, so that this or that 
committee, more easy to satisfy than the others, was known as a " back 
door." There will be but one door now, and that will be at the front of 
the house. At that door, the Committee on Admission will welcome any 
student of serious character and purpose who is qualified by previous 
training to undertake the work of the courses of instruction to which he 
asks admission. 

The creation of this single committee to administer the large and 
various business of admission means more than the transference of a 
great mass of administrative work from five sets of men to one set ; and 
it means, too, more than the equable administration of admission, which 
is made possible by one committee instead of five. It means that greater 
progress towards the right solution of the pressing question of admission 
requirements is possible. Progress was slow and difficult before because 
no one committee understood the whole field of work ; and no one com- 
mittee could act for all students. Now, a single' committee commands 
the whole situation, and is in a position to study and devise methods of 
admission which shall be well adjusted to the changing conditions of 
school and college work. Already, though much remains to be done, 
something has been accomplished. The Faculty have taken, this year, 
steps towards improvement in methods of admission in those three 
directions in which improvement is most needed, not so far as Harvard 
is concerned alone, but as regards colleges in general. These three direc- 
tions are (1) a better adjustment of college requirements to school work, 
(2) a greater degree of uniformity in college requirements, (3) better 
means of testing fitness for admission. 

With respect to the first, some progress has been made towards a 
better adjustment of admission requirements to the work that precedes, 
and the work that follows, entrance to college by the establishment of the 
new degree of S.B. in Harvard College. Many of the difficulties in 
regard to admission to college are due to the fact that whereas the pro- 
grams of both schools and colleges have been greatly broadened, admission 
requirements have not kept pace with that broadening. The require- 
ments have remained a narrow gate between two constantly widening 
fields of work. Colleges have constantly increased the range and variety 
of the instruction they give, but have continued to insist on certain tra- 
ditional studies for admission. High schools have also been forced by 
public opinion to increase the variety of instruction they give, and have 
thus been caught between two kinds of pressure, the pressure of public 



4 Mew Methods of Admission to Harvard 

opinion, which has forced them to teach a greater number of subjects, 
and the pressure of college requirements, which has forced them to teach 
the old subjects better ; for college requirements in separate studies have 
tended to increase in amount. The way out of this dilB&culty is to make 
college requirements more flexible by recognizing as admission subjects 
new subjects taught in both high schools and colleges. The establishment 
of the new degree of S.B. in Harvard College is one of the many steps 
which Harvard has taken in this direction, for the admission requirements 
for this degree include a number of subjects not recognized as admission 
subjects for the degree of A.B. Formerly, a candidate for the degree 
of S.B. was admitted only to the Scientific School, in which he was obliged 
to adapt himself to one of several programs of professional studies, which 
might, or might not, be adapted to him. Now, he may register in Harvard 
College, where the more liberal tradition prevails of freedom in election 
of studies ; and he may direct his work to his own individual advantage. 
This step brings high school and college somewhat nearer together, and 
will help towards abolishing the vicious distinction made in high schools 
between those two sets of young men who, to use the misleading phrases 
often used to designate'them, are " preparing for college " and " preparing 
for life." That there should be people who believe that a boy preparing 
for college is not also preparing for life is due to narrow methods of ad- 
ministering admission to college. The passage from high school to college 
should be as natural as the passage from grammar school to high school ; 
and admission requirements should be so ordered that every young man 
may continue, in the larger and fuller life of the university, studies which he 
has carried as far as the high school can take him, and which he has un- 
dertaken as a preparation for the life which he, as an individual, intends 
to lead. The changes made by Harvard this year, by which candidates 
for the degree of S.B. are admitted to Harvard College, will tend to 
encourage young men who intend to enter scientific professions to obtain 
a liberal education before entering upon training that is strictly profes- 
sional. 

In the second direction — greater uniformity in college requirements 
— progress also has been made. The variety of college requirements 
is a source of great embarrassment to the work of schools. In a large 
school, there may be groups of men preparing for a dozen or fifteen col- 
leges ; and for each group the school must vary its instruction. This is 
an absurd condition of things ; but it has been somewhat relieved in 
recent years by the establishment of the College Entrance Examination 
Board. This Board conducts examinations which are accepted by colleges 
as substitutes for their own. Up to this year the Faculty have hesitated 
to accept the Board examinations through fear of endangering the high 



New Methods of Admission to Harvard 5 

standard of the Harvard examinations. The Faculty may be pardoned, 
perhaps, for believing that their own examinations are better than any 
others that can be devised, but an insistence upon those examinations as 
the only tests for admission embarrassed the work of those schools which 
were obliged to prepare boys for other colleges as well as for Harvard, 
and discouraged many schools from attempting to send boys to Harvard 
at all. Young men who lived at a great distance from the University, in 
cities in which Harvard examinations were not held, had just as good a 
training for college as young men in Boston, perhaps better, but until 
this year such young men were effectually discouraged from coming to 
Cambridge, not because they did not know enough to enter college, 
but simply because they had not access to any tests which the College 
would recognize. A boy in a Western city in which Harvard examin- 
ations are not held, knows as much, whether he takes Harvard or 
Board examinations. We may be surer of his knowledge of specific 
subjects if he passes the Harvard tests ; but it is idle to say that the 
question of his fitness for admission to college cannot be decided by the 
tests furnished by the Board. Feeling that a state of things was not 
reasonable which prevented a young man from coming to Harvard, not 
because he did not know enough, but because he had no opportunity of 
showing his knowledge in a peculiar way, the Faculty joined the Board, 
and adopted certain Board examinations as substitutes for their own. By 
this change, the work of those schools which send boys to Harvard is 
simplified ; and new avenues of approach to the University have opened. 
The examinations last year were held in about 50 places ; this year they 
will be held in about 150. 

In the third respect — namely, better means of testing fitness for 
admission — steps have been made in advance by the adoption of new 
regulations which give the schools entire freedom in regard to the ways 
in which they prepare boys for 'the admission examinations. The present 
admission requirements date from 1898, when the Faculty added a 
number of new subjects to the list of those which may be used for admis- 
sion. In adopting these requirements, the Faculty did not perceive that 
they should also change the rules governing admission examinations. A 
larger number of examinations continued to be administered under rules 
adapted to a smaller number. By the beginning of this year, the Faculty 
had had enough experience with the new requirements for admission to 
see that the rules under which examinations were administered produced 
certain definite evils. Correspondence with schools showed that the pro- 
grams of boys preparing for college were crowded in the last two years, 
on account of the rule that a candidate could not divide his examinations 
except between two years. Boys were compelled to carry, for examin- 



6 New Methods of Admission to Harvard 

ation purposes only, a larger number of subjects in these two years than 
they could do well ; and progress in individual subjects was checked by 
the necessity of constant review for examinations in subjects already 
completed. It was perceived also that the rule which denied a candidate 
credit for one subject in which he had done good work, because he had not 
done a number of other subjects also, checked a boy's natural intellectual 
growth. Such a rule created an absurd situation, in which boys who passed, 
let us say, an examination in Chemistry, with Grade A, were refused any 
credit whatever for having done so, and were compelled to take another 
examination a year later in the same subject. Perceiving these diffi- 
culties, the Faculty readjusted the rules governing admission examinations 
to the changed conditions. Hereafter, the proper distinction will be 
made between giving credit for individual subjects and giving permission 
to enter the University. Candidates will be free to show that they have 
the required knowledge of Algebra, History, etc., whenever they have 
completed their work in those subjects ; and the question of their fitness 
for admission to the University will be passed upon by the Committee on 
Admission when they have completed their records. Admission will no 
longer be a matter of passing so many examinations in one year, and so 
many the next year, but a matter of offering a body of work correspond- 
ing to the admission requirements which the Committee on Admission 
will consider with respect both to quantity and to quality. 

Enough has been said, perhaps, to show that in this matter of admission 
requirements and administration the University is true to her traditional 
regard for the individual ; and that she has this year taken several steps 
which make for increased freedom of opportunity. Harvard always has 
been the most democratic of American institutions of learning ; and the 
changes made this year will tend to make her more democratic. By 
reason of inelastic admission requirements, colleges have not been as use- 
ful as they should be. While constantly extending the number of sub- 
jects in which they themselves give instruction, they have maintained 
admission requirements which have tended to restrain high schools from 
proceeding in the same liberal manner. In recognizing all the subjects 
commonly taught in high schools as suitable subjects in which to examine 
for admission, by not insisting on peculiar tests of fitness, but by accept- 
ing such more widely established tests as those of the College Entrance 
Examination Board, and by giving to the schools a reasonable freedom 
in regard to the methods by which they prepare boys for admission, 
Harvard has done much to lessen the unfortunate separation between 
high schools and the college, to simplify the work of schools, and to make 
the resources of the University more easily accessible to a much larger 
number of men. Moreover, the changes in the College machinery will. 



New Methods of Admission to Harvard 7 

it is to be hoped, hasten the solution of the many problems connected 
with the admission of students to the numerous departments of instruction, 
some of which are now almost as large as the old College used to be. 
The new Committee on Admission is in a better position than any com- 
mittee heretofore to study the situation, and to devise remedies where 
they are needed. They can do the University a great service if they look 
upon their work, not as the work of keeping out men who have not been 
trained in peculiar ways, but as a work of keeping methods of admission 
constantly adjusted to changing conditions in school and college, so that 
men shall be selected for the College by natural, and not by artificial, 
methods. Rightly managed, the work of such a committee should en- 
courage every boy, whether his mind is one that grows by contact with 
Greek and Latin, or by contact with Engineering, or with any other 
subject in which the University gives instruction, to make the University 
his goal. 

J. G, Hart, '93. 



APPENDIX IV. 



Sepaeate Eeport by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, 

'80. 

Professor Hart writes: 

May 21, 1906. 

^ ' The carbon copy of the report of the Committee 
on the relation of Harvard University to secondary 
education reached me this morning, and I have gone 
over it thoughtfully. I telegraphed you that I hesi- 
tated to sign it. My individual judgment would be 
that the Committee had better make a preliminary 
report on the effect of the recent changes in bring- 
ing Harvard into closer relations with the fitting 
schools, and perhaps should make some recommen- 
dation in regard to examination scholarships, and 
then should ask for continuation in order to report 
on the question of certification. 

The reason for this opinion is first of all that re- 
turns from forty-one schools are a narrow basis 
for generalizations as to over six hundred schools, 
which have sent boys to Harvard College during 
the past ten years ; and we really have not data to 
establish conclusions which will be important and 
convincing. In the second place, the report bears 
very strongly in favor of certification and a system 
of examination of schools by Harvard authorities, 
and there are several considerations which would 
need to be examined before a helpful deduction 
could be made on that subject; for instance, certifi- 
cation may be one thing, when there are several 
powerful institutions, including Harvard and Yale, 
which stiffen up the whole standard by their exami- 
nations, and which give a point of comparison. The 
question of the number of students who are turned 
back in the Freshman year after certification, as 
compared with those who fail to justify their ex- 
aminations, is also a very important factor, which 



there has been no opportunity to discuss. In the 
Educational Review for May, 1906, there is a vig- 
orous, and I believe wrong-headed article, on Ex- 
aminations and the Results in Columbia, by Edward 
L. Thorndike, which nevertheless presents consid- 
erations which ought to be taken into account by 
our Committee. 

At the very outset of the report, you discuss the 
coming in of men from other colleges, registered as 
undergraduates, and quite leave out of account the 
fact that probably the greater number of these men 
got their degree from their own colleges, and then 
came to Harvard to get a second A. B. Probably 
you are acquainted with students who have thus a 
double but not a divided loyalty. 

The conditions with regard to certification of a 
state university like Michigan, Wisconsin or Cali- 
fornia, which deals almost entirely with public high 
schools, the principals and many of the teachers of 
which are graduates from the university in ques- 
tion, is a very different matter from certification in 
a state like Ohio, where there are many colleges, 
and where there is no very close relation between 
the schools and the state university; and still more 
different where there are the great endowed acade- 
mies and private schools. 

I have thought that a report on the question of 
certification would have pith and weight, provided 
we were able to go into it further, and provided we 
examine the question why the system of inspection 
organized about fifteen years ago by Harvard was 
a total failure. The report says that ^the value of 
Harvard's approval to the secondary schools will 
be such as to make all schools seek it/ but the ex- 
periment, based on very carefully prepared plans, 
proved that almost no schools desired a Harvard 
approval. 

There are also some very important questions 
within the main field of the committee's delibera- 
tions, which could be solved, but which we have not 
yet reached. For instance, the question of the num- 
ber of Harvard graduates engaged as teachers in 



schools of various types, which of course would 
throw a good deal of light on the directing of boys 
to college; this ought to include the influence of 
Eadclitfe graduates as teachers and the teachers 
trained in the summer schools. 

I do not at all underrate the labors of the Com- 
mittee, or rather of its Chairman, who has turned on 
so much steam in the inquiry, but the subject of ex- 
amination and certification is too serious to be dis- 
posed of without going considerably deeper into it. 
I am entirely open to conviction, but my present 
frame of mind is that it is impossible for Harvard 
College to inspect any considerable number of its 
large area of feeders ; and, without inspection, cer- 
tification is delusive. So far as I can see, the only 
subject on which we could make a report at this 
time which would influence, would be the effect of the 
new organization for admission to college, in the 
way of simplifying the process, which would be sent 
out as a matter of information and suggestion to 
the members of the Associated Harvard Clubs for 
themselves, their sons and for the schools in their 
neighborhoods ; it is very important that this change 
of attitude should be spread abroad. Perhaps a 
second point might be scholarships to be given as 
prizes on examination. I suppose the great diffi- 
culty there is that you cannot offer a prize where 
there is only a small number of candidates; and if 
the whole thing is thrown open to a general compe- 
tition, the prizes are pretty sure to go to boys from 
the most experienced Harvard schools in the East. 
As a matter of fact, the present assignment of the 
Price-Greenleaf Aid resembles admission on cer- 
tificate, in that it is given on the credentials fur- 
nished by the teachers in the boy's school and other 
persons who can testify to his ability, subject to 
withdrawal, if the examinations do not confirm the 
favorable opinion. 

The office has sent all the materials they have with 
reference to the new system of examination, so that 
any part of it that you think fit may be used, or you 
might summarize it. The main points to bring out 
are: 



1. The question whether the student can be re- 
ceived on some other conditions than that of en- 
trance by examination into the Freshman class is 
determined by the same Committee which settles the 
question of Freshman admission; and this is espe- 
cially convenient to boys not qualified to enter a 
college as Freshmen, who nevertheless may profit by 
a status as special students. 

2. Examinations on the installment plan may be 
taken in any June or September, on subjects to 
which the teacher certifies the candidate is fitted; 
this gives the teachers a new responsibility and se- 
cures many of the benefits of the certificate system. 
The boy will get credit for what he passes. 

3. In addition, just as heretofore, any candidate 
who wishes to try his fortune on a sufficient number 
of subjects to admit him if he passes them may take 
examinations either in June or in September with- 
out the teacher's certificate, if he has completed his 
school course and has been honorably dismissed. 

4. The certificate is not necessarily that of a 
school; a tutor, or, I take it, any person who has 
superintended or followed the self -preparation of a 
boy, will be accepted as sufficient to enable him to 
take installment examinations. 

5. Although to obtain a status leading ultimately 
to the A. B., a candidate for Harvard College must 
pass in twenty-six points, he is in practice usually 
admitted with conditions on twenty points to the 
College and eighteen to the Scientific School, whether 
those points are accumulated by successive install- 
ments or are gained by taking the examinations all 
at once. 

6. The policy of the Faculty in establishing this 
concentrated system of admission to all its depart- 
ments is based upon a purpose to get rid of techni- 
calities, and to come down to the fundamental ques- 
tion whether a student is prepared to profit by the 
instruction of the Freshman year. 

7. The Secretary of the Faculty, Mr. J. G-. Hart, 
is Chairman of the Committee and has charge of 
the entrance system, and will answer all inquiries 
promptly and specifically. 



I regret that I cannot coincide with the whole re- 
port, but I feel very strongly that we could render 
a much greater service by taking another year and 
going more thoroughly into the whole question. The 
work of the Appointments Bureau in placing Har- 
vard men in the secondary schools ; the actual num- 
ber of Harvard men thus engaged; the proportion 
of Harvard students coming from the New England 
academies, from the high schools and the private 
schools; the question of how far school relations 
proceed after entrance into college ; these and many 
like subjects are extremely pertinent, and though 
some of them do not lend themselves to statistical 
treatment, are such as can be properly treated in a 
later report. 

Furthermore, so far as I yet have light, I think 
that the maintenance of an examination system is a 
very much better thing for Harvard and for the 
country than any certificate system could be. ' ^ 

Albert Bushnell Hart. 



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